Landlords' empty homes 'should not be subsidised by taxpayer'

News Category: Industry News

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Landlords should not have their empty properties subsidised by taxpayers, according to campaigning charity the Empty Homes Agency.

David Ireland, Empty Homes Agency chief executive, said the tax relief should instead be placed on the costs of renovation work carried out to bring an empty property back into use.

"Then the tax relief is there for people who want to bring those properties back into use, but if you decide to leave it empty, then you don't get the tax relief," he said.

The Empty Homes Agency estimates there are more than 750,000 empty homes in England and Mr Ireland said that once you get one or two empty properties in an area confidence becomes eroded and further decline normally follows.

His comments came after the Northern Irish government postponed its plans to place rates on landlords' empty properties until April 2011.

The plan to tax landlords was originally going to be introduced next April but has been delayed because of the state of the housing market.

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