Deputy Montfort Tadier has listed a question for today’s States sitting about a tax on empty properties, which he says could be administered through the existing rates system.
The 2011 Census showed that 7% of all homes were vacant – that works out at 3,103 homes, including almost a thousand with three bedrooms or more. The same figures showed that just over half of the empty homes were just waiting for a new tenant or being renovated.
Deputy Tadier said that he had received a good response to the issue when discussing it with States colleagues ahead of formally putting it to Housing Minister Anne Pryke.
He said: “We know that we need to build more housing, but certainly no-one wants to build on green fields unnecessarily. So maybe we should start to look at properties that already exist but are not being used as a way to tackle the housing issue.”
The last Housing Needs survey showed that there was a serious need for new homes. It said that there was a potential shortfall of more than 1,000 units in the owner-occupier sector, and a potential shortfall of more than 400 units in the social housing sector, where demand has increased in recent years.