Monday 23rd October 2006
A survey by high-street bank Halifax has found that up to 300,000 homes in the UK have stood vacant for more than six months.
The results come at the beginning of a National Week of Action designed to target the problem of unused housing.
Halifax is calling for extensions to existing tax cuts, which currently allow for a five per cent rate of VAT on renovation costs for houses which have been empty over three years.
Tim Crawford, group economist at Halifax, said: "Restoring an empty home is likely to be expensive, potentially costing close to £30,000 by our estimates."
"We encourage the government to broaden the incentives available for restoring empty homes and extend the reduced five per cent rate of VAT for renovating an empty home," he added.
The bank believes all homes which have been unoccupied over a six-month period should be entitled to the reduced tax rate.
Under the terms of the Housing Act 2004 councils may double taxation on empty properties or, if the residence has been empty for more than six months, may take over management of it completely.
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