Fife SNP in call for second home Council Tax hike to go to help housing crisis

Fife Council wants to double the bills if the Scottish Government approves draft legislation in April. The local authority has charged the full rate for a number of years, but wants to hike it to 200% - a move which will mainly affect the north-east of Fife where many second homes are located.

Councillors were told last week the additional revenue will go into council services, but the SNP wants it to be used to improve the Kingdom’s housing stock. There are currently around 1000 households in Fife in temporary homeless accommodation, awaiting permanent homes. This includes around 380 children.

The SNP group has called for the windfall to be invested into tackling homelessness by increasing the housing stock. A decision on how the money will be spent won’t be made until the revenue budget is set in February, but the SNP group has made clear that they expect to see all of this money invested to help tackle homelessness.

Cllr Lesley Backhouse, SNP Housing Spokesperson said. “The quickest way to get a new home is to invest in property acquisition on the open market. SNP moved last year to bring forward future years spend to increase the number of properties resulting in an additional 118 homes. This extra money together with the subsidy provided by the Scottish Government could see a doubling of the budget available.

“Building new houses takes three to five years, buying properties takes three to six months. If the Labour led coalition is serious about ending homelessness it needs to ramp up property acquisitions to around 200 per annum as new build of around 100 a year is not even scratching the surface of the issue.”

A second home is defined as a house that is not the owner’s main residence but is occupied for at least 25 days a year. Some exemptions to the new rule will apply - for example, if it is needed by the owner for work purposes.