Second home owners in North Yorkshire to face council tax premium on properties

It comes amid ambitious plans to tackle the affordable housing crisis which is affecting communities across the county.

Senior councillors at North Yorkshire County Council are due to decide, today on Tuesday September 20, on a 100 per cent premium introduced for council tax bills on second homes within the next two years.

The council’s executive has unanimously backed the plans, which would effectively double council tax bills for second home owners, and the proposals will now be considered at a full council meeting.

North Yorkshire County Council’s leader, Councillor Carl Les, said that decisive and radical action had to be taken to tackle the long-running issue of second home ownership in the county.

If the scheme is agreed by the full council during the meeting in November, it will mean that North Yorkshire is one of the first areas in the country to progress adopting the Government’s new measures, which are ultimately aimed at bringing second homes back into use for local communities.

It is also expected that a decision to introduce the premium will provide a multi-million pound boost to finance key council priorities, including a central aim to use the funding to help introduce more housing in areas particularly affected by the affordability crisis.

North Yorkshire has the highest number of second homes in the region, and concerns have been voiced that the trend is undermining the availability of housing for local communities as well as inflating property prices.

The independent North Yorkshire Rural Commission highlighted the affordable housing crisis as among the greatest challenges to resolve.

Cllr Les said: “There is no simple solution to the issue of affordable housing, second homes and the impact they have on housing for local communities.

“But we recognise that bold and decisive action needs to be taken to deal with the affordable housing crisis in North Yorkshire, and that is why the executive has decided to pursue the policy of a council tax premium.

“It may not be popular with everyone, but that is not the key factor in this decision. We need to act to try and ensure more local people have access to housing in their own communities, and the premium on council tax bills for second homes will be a significant step towards achieving that.

“Second homes and the impact they can have on the availability of housing has been a long-running problem that has affected communities not just in North Yorkshire but across the country, and this was reinforced by the findings of the independent North Yorkshire Rural Commission.”

An analysis has shown that the introduction of a 100 per cent premium on council tax bills for second homes in North Yorkshire could generate in excess of £14 million a year in additional revenue.

The Scarborough district has the potential to bring in almost half of that figure due to the large number of second homes in coastal towns such as Whitby, Scarborough and Filey.