Landlords are saying housing standards in Manchester could suffer because of council tax changes for empty homes being brought in.

The Labour-controlled council has just closed its formal consultation on its proposal to increase the level of council tax for empty homes by 100 per cent.

Manchester City Council also intends to increase council tax by 4.99 per cent next financial year, with an average Band D property tax rising to £1,966 per year.

If as expected the new levy for empty properties is agreed upon then landlords with a Band D property will have an extra bill of £327.66 per month during a void period.

A PRS trade body has sent its objections to the consultation explaining that in the majority of locations, empty properties on the whole are only subject to extra council tax during void periods when it is more than two years.

It says council tax changes doubling the council tax for landlords in the current hard economic climate will unfairly punish landlords during void periods and the extra cost may have to be paid by higher rents for future tenants.

The trade body says landlords do not ‘appreciate’ void periods which naturally happen between tenancies for short periods, however some landlords take the ‘opportunity’ to upgrade energy efficiency measures and other property improvements.

The trade body, says: “By penalising PRS landlords for making improvementsSignificant works to be carried out to a property, block or estate but not work that is required to remedy disrepair the city council risks them carrying out only absolutely essential works, encouraging them to ditch plans for other improvements if they know they will face a financial penalty for doing so.”

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