In a bid to tackle Argyll and Bute’s housing emergency, councillors have voted to double council tax on second homes from next spring, if MSPs pass legislation as expected, and it may be tripled in future.
A Scottish Government consultation proposed giving councils the power to double council tax on second homes from April 1 2024. Legislation is being drafted, and is expected to “go through” Parliament in February, the council’s executive director Kirsty Flanagan told the Kilmory Castle chamber on November 23.
Council Leader, Kintyre and Islands councillor Robin Currie (Lib Dem), said: “With the number of second homes on the rise in Argyll and Bute, this could have a significant impact on the housing emergency in our communities by encouraging owners of second homes to consider either selling or renting out their properties.”
Councillor Currie added: “We have got more than 3,000 people on our housing waiting list. We have got 500 households presenting themselves as homeless in the past year.
“We have got a big problem. And here we are in Argyll and Bute, people with two houses. Everyone is entitled to a comfortable, safe, warm, secure house. But they are not entitled to have two houses.
“I have been approached by second home owners saying how dare I support it and I am sending these people away. But I believe strongly we have to address the situation we are in. Some of our communities have 40 per cent second homes.”
He said it would be “diabolical” if any potential loopholes are not closed.
Ms Flanagan said the number of second homes in Argyll and Bute has increased from 3,045 in 2022/23 to 3,235 in 2023/24 and a review of self-catering units in Non-Domestic Rates is expected to further increase these numbers in the coming year.
The council expects charging double council tax on these second homes will raise an extra “£4.177 million from 2024/25 onwards”, which will help it close its budget gap, forecast at more than £12 million next year.
Councillors agreed to charge a 100 per cent premium on second homes, should MSPs pass the legislation at Holyrood.
Council officials said the Scottish Government is also considering a “stepped approach” towards further “significant changes”, such as a 300 per cent premium of council tax for second and long-term empty homes.
“We have 900 long-term empty properties in Argyll and Bute so, in addition to the second homes, this would be more than 4,000 properties eligible for this enhanced premium, if it is agreed, and the council want to support that,” Ms Flanagan said.
In Wales, local authorities have had the power to increase council tax on second homes by up to 300 per cent since April 2023 and “there are reports the move has increased the number of properties on the market for sale”.
Fergus Walker from the council’s revenues and benefits team added: “We would be really keen to look at building in some kind of planning consent, so if a new property is purchased in the future, it should not be allowed to be converted into a self-catering unit or a second home without planning consent first being approved by the council.”
The council also unveiled plans to build hundreds of new affordable homes across Argyll and Bute.
The revised Strategic Housing Investment Plan (SHIP), which councillors agreed on November 23, could see 106 new affordable homes delivered in 2023/24 and over 1,000 homes in the years ahead.
Councillor Currie said: “The SHIP sets out what is an ambitious but realistic programme for the delivery of new affordable housing across Argyll and Bute for the next five years.”