Issue - items at meetings - Notices of Motion

To receive and consider the recommendations of the Cabinet (Minute 73(a)) as an amendment to the following Notice of Motion submitted previously to the Council by Councillor Connett and referred thereto in accordance with Standing Order 8(2), namely:

Devon County Council calls on the Government to:

1. End the tax dodge loop-hole of second home owners switching from Council Tax to Business Rates and then claiming ‘small business’ exemption, so they pay nothing at all.

2. To re-extend the notice period given to tenants to 6 months

3. Maintain the Local Housing Allowances at Covid-levels (plus cost-of-living increases) to support families into homes

and that the County Council will:

1. Work with Devon's District, City and Borough councils to establish a 'housing taskforce' working across the county to tackle the flight to Air BnB and holiday rentals

2. Support the provision of urgently needed rented housing on County owned land

Council welcomes the research undertaken by property agents Colliers and published in August 2021, which confirms:

Local authorities are losing out on millions of pounds of council tax income because the Government’s business rates system is still giving many holiday home and second home owners the opportunity to avoid paying the tax, provided they make their properties available to rent. This situation has been made even worse by the pandemic.

Colliers estimates the total loss to local authorities from business rates relief for holiday lets in England and Wales alone is currently around £110 million a year - a significant sum that could certainly help bridge the gap in local authority finances, now suffering because of the pandemic.

Property owners who make their properties available to rent as holiday lets for 140 days of the year can claim they are a small business and as such can elect to pay business rates instead of council tax.

However, as small businesses they can claim for relief on 100% of the business rates payable if their properties have a rateable value of less than £12,000. Those properties with a rateable value between £12,000 and £15,000 are also entitled to a relief on a sliding scale in line with the Government’s business rates relief policy.

Colliers has analysed the rating lists for the South West of England (Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and Dorset) where 9,600 new properties, claiming 100% business rates relief have entered the list in the last four years- an 82 % increase since the start of the 2017 Ratings List.

According to Colliers’ estimates this flip from the council tax to the business rates list is costing the local councils an extra £16 million a year in council tax income. The South West now has 21,312 properties in the rating list that are eligible for 100% business rates relief and Colliers has estimated that if these properties at least paid council tax the local councils would benefit by £35.5 million a year!

Council also notes that the Office for National Statistics has reported:

The number of households living in the private ... view the full agenda text for item 67

Councillor Hart MOVED and Councillor McInnes SECONDED that the Cabinet’s advice be accepted and that the Notices of Motion be supported and;

a) that the County Council assess the potential for it to offer accommodation to new social and key workers to attract them to work for Devon County Council;

(b) that the County Council, as a member of Team Devon (Leaders and Chief Executives), propose to Team Devon that a Devon strategic housing taskforce be established to help draw together the work of existing pan-Devon housing partnerships and focus on tackling homelessness and improving the availability of affordable housing in Devon; and

(c) that the County Council, as a member of Team Devon (Leaders and Chief Executives), proposes to Team Devon that it write to Devon Members of Parliament asking them to support changes to legislation and policy to address the housing problems in Devon described in the Notices of Motion. Team Devon’s letter to MPs should propose strengthening the criteria on how a property becomes liable for Business Rates instead of Council Tax. Owners of these properties should have to show that they are commercially letting the property and not just declaring them available for rent.

The amendment in the name of Councillor Hart was then put to the vote and declared CARRIED and subsequently thereafter also CARRIED as the substantive motion, nem. con.

(All Members of the Council had been granted a dispensation to allow them to speak and vote in any debate on housing where they owned / leased land, business, property in the administrative County of Devon, unless the matter

relates directly to that land, business or property)

The Chair MOVED and it was duly SECONDED that in accordance with Standing Order 30, Standing Order 5 be suspended to permit the re-ordering of agenda items and for the Council to take agenda items 11 and 12 together with the consent of Councillor’s Connett and Hannaford.

The MOTION was put to the vote and declared CARRIED.

Pursuant to County Council Minutes 53 and 54 of 7 October 2021 relating to the Notice of Motions set out below as submitted and formally moved and seconded by Councillors Connett and Hannaford as below:

Supporting Devon Residents into Homes of their Own (Councillor Connett)