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Empty Property Tax Grab Plan Backfires Again
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Written by James D. Crawford   
Thursday, 22 December 2011
Empty rate relief has failed to save government the millions of pounds it had anticipated, according to the latest department for Communities and Local Government statistics.

Figures for the year ended 31 March show that the government awarded more than ?1.1bn in empty property relief -- an increase of ?4.6m on 2009/10 and up by more than ?520m on 2008/09.

CLG had said that the 2009/10 rise was caused by the decision to raise rate relief from ?2,200 to ?15,000 temporarily. However, this latest increase comes despite government reducing the empty rate relief threshold from J18,000 to ?2,600.

Observers said the level of relief had failed to deliver the anticipated savings owing to the industry's use of clever avoidance tactics, such as intermittent occupation, whereby a tenant occupies a building for six weeks to enable a six-month, rate-free period.

The latest CLG figures also show that there are now 269,000 non-domestic empty properties in the UK -- equivalent to 16% of the country's total stock.

Jerry Schurder, head of rating at Gerald Eve, said: "The proportion of the country's stock that is vacant is quite staggering and surely only harm is being done by charging empty rates on all this space."

Between 2005 and 2008, empty property rate relief cost Whitehall roughly ?1.3bn a year. Ministers then scrapped the relief, which cost the property industry ?800m.

However, these latest figures show that the government is now back to handing out near pre-recession levels.
Last Updated ( Thursday, 22 December 2011 )