We hear that the District Council’s “Council Tax Base” has dropped this year. This is the number of houses where people are paying council tax. It seems that in the past 12 months, there’s been an increase in empty properties, and not many new ones built…
Will the council use this information as an excuse to increase council tax next year, under the guise that there isn’t as much money coming in? It might be worth pointing out that exemption from paying council tax on an empty house is for a maximum period of 6 months, (naturally there are a few exceptions to that rule though)
Not really – the drop is pretty marginal (the significance is that there is a drop at all). What’s more significant is the loss of income for planning fees that developers pay.