An activist wants council tax premiums on second homes to be as high as 400% and for there to be compulsory purchases powers over land required to build homes.
Ailsa Raeburn, chair of a group called Community Land Scotland, says radical changes are needed, specifically to help create more permanent homes in the Highlands and Islands.
Quoted in The Scotsman, Raeburn says: “We have businesses, local and global wanting to invest and grow in the Highlands and Islands. We have a beautiful place to live with a great quality of life. We have more and more of our own young people wanting to build their lives here. So what’s the problem? It’s housing.”
The Scottish Government has given local authorities the power to raise council tax on second properties by up to 200% but Raeburn adds: “Over a period of five to 10 years it could go to 300 or 400 % because we want to use tax as a way of driving change. It used to be the case that council tax on second homes was ringfenced and reinvested into affordable housing but that has recently changed and obviously our position would be that that should go back.
“Second home ownership is hugely impacting on the amount of housing that is available. We use taxation to change behaviours. You could try and encourage people to sell their second homes so they can be brought back into permanent use.”
She also wants land siezed for house building through the use of Compulsory Purchase Orders.
She is quoted as saying: “Quite often CPO legislation was brought in for big road or rail schemes and therefore it was specifically written to address those big infrastructure requirements. Actually what we need now is CPO to buy small sites on the edge of towns or villages. It is a completely different approach really. We need CPO schemes which are quicker and are easier.
“We need to bring these sites forward for development and we can’t let landowners hold us to ransom over it, which is effectively what is happening. A landowner will see that a local authority is interested in the land and assume they can keep pushing up the price and then schemes are not viable. Landowners are being unreasonable in their expectation of what the acquiring authority will pay.
“It is about introducing some more realism and changing the negotiating position so that schemes can go ahead and you don’t get landowners just sort of turning their face and saying ‘if you don’t pay me £50,000 I am not selling it or ‘I am going to take you to court’”.
You can read The Scotsman piece here: https://www.scotsman.com/heritage-and-retro/heritage/council-tax-on-second-homes-should-rise-up-to-400-to-help-tackle-highland-housing-crisis-4867947
This article is taken from Landlord Today