British Union boss, Brendon Barber, has come up with a highly innovative and controversial proposal designed to ward off the housing crisis that many believe Britain is heading for.
Under the terms of the radical proposal that Barber is believed to have put forward for the consideration of Alistair Darling, properties that are allowed to stand vacant will attract an ‘empty property tax’. The clear purpose of this proposed new tax is to encourage landlords to sell or rent their property as quickly as possible, thus reducing the housing shortage.
The proposal would affect nearly a million properties in the UK and if present figures were to remain the same then the tax would be set to raise 5 billion in additional revenue. One can only hope that that revenue would then be put back into the property industry in an endeavour to head off the predicted shortage. It is hard not to have doubts on this point, however.
If the goal of the proposal was achieved then it is to be assumed that the tax revenue raised would be much lower than anticipated but that a lot of living space would be bought back into the market earlier than the owner had planned. This does presume, however, that people are choosing not to rent or sell their properties rather than being forced into that stance. It is a troubling thought that landlords who cannot find anyone to rent a vacant property could also be forced into paying out more money in tax. It will be interesting to see how this proposal is greeted by Mr Darling.
