People who own homes in Crawley but leave them empty could find themselves having to pay double their council tax

At the moment, homes which are left unoccupied and mostly unfurnished incur a 100 per cent council tax premium after two years.

But, during a meeting of Crawley Borough Council’s cabinet on Wednesday (March 13), it was recommended that be reduced to one year.

A 100 per cent premium was also recommended for second homes which were only occupied periodically – such as holiday homes.

If both are approved by the full council on March 27, the changes will come into effect from April 2025.

The council declared a housing emergency in February.

The aim of the cabinet recommendations was to not only reduce the number of empty homes in the borough but to ensure that anyone who chose to leave them empty would find themselves ‘making a greater contribution to help pay for local services’.

Michael Jones, leader of the council, said: “It is my view that, at a time when many people can’t even afford one home, those who are fortunate enough to be able to afford more than one house should make a higher contribution.

“I think that’s the right thing to do.”

There are currently 35 long-term empty properties in Crawley – 26 have been unoccupied for between two and five years, five for between five and ten years and four for more than 10 years.

Another 331 are classed as second homes.

The proposed changes follow the introduction of new rules by the government which allow local authorities to set higher council tax premiums on empty and second homes.

The Levelling-up and Regeneration Act came into force in October 2023.

Mr Jones said: “The changes are expected to generate around £70,000 income for this council – although Sussex Police will get more than that and West Sussex County Council will get substantially more than that, around £500,000, I believe.”

Conservative leader Duncan Crow supported the recommendations.

He said: “I do think this is the correct way forward.

“Compared to a lot of places, we don’t have a huge number of empty properties – but clearly it’s not in anybody’s interest to have properties sitting empty for any significant period of time.”

During an earlier meeting of the overview & scrutiny commission, concerns were raised that home-owners would try to defraud the council by claiming that they were renting out an empty home to, for example, a family member.

But officers assured councillors that checks – ranging from credit checks to whether or not the bins were being emptied – would be in place to prevent this from happening.