Second Homes: Holiday Accommodation

(asked on 12th July 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate his Department has made of the number of second homes in (a) each local authority and (b) England registered as holiday lets and for which small business rate relief has been claimed; what estimate he has made of the loss of revenue as a result of that relief; whether he plans to increase the minimum number of letting days to determine eligibility for that relief; whether his Department plans to review the effect of second homes and small business rate relief; and if he will make a statement.


Answered by
Rishi Sunak Portrait
Rishi Sunak
Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union
This question was answered on 17th July 2018

Second homes are liable for council tax, not business rates. However, where a property is available for letting commercially for short periods totalling at least 140 days per year, then it will be assessed for business rates and added to the business rates list. As of June 2018, there were 47,307 holiday lets liable for business rates in England. The table below provides the figures by local authority. Small Business Rate Relief provides 100 per cent relief from business rates on properties with a rateable value of £12,000 or less, provided the business uses only one property (though relief may still be available under certain circumstances). The Department does not hold information on the number of recipients of Small Business Rates Relief by type of property.

The 140-day rule is widely understood and provides a clear and stable method of deciding whether a property should be liable for council tax or business rates. In particular, it ensures that properties do not switch year-to-year between council tax and business rates merely due to success in letting out the property. It is right that genuine holiday lets, many of which are small businesses, should be able to apply for Small Business Rate Relief. However, the Government takes any concerns about possible council tax avoidance seriously, and is considering whether the criteria under which holiday lets are valued for business rates are appropriate.

Local authority

Number of holiday lets on the rating list

Adur

9

Allerdale

1,006

Amber Valley

78

Arun

102

Ashfield

5

Ashford

140

Aylesbury Vale

21

Babergh

118

Barnsley

23

Barrow-in-Furness

12

Basildon

12

Basingstoke & Deane

5

Bassetlaw

22

Bath & North East Somerset

260

Bedford

8

Birmingham

5

Blackburn with Darwen

3

Blackpool

187

Bolsover

10

Bolton

3

Boston

15

Bournemouth

69

Bracknell Forest

9

Bradford

146

Braintree

44

Breckland

153

Brent

1

Brighton & Hove

168

Bristol

72

Broadland

254

Bromley

1

Bromsgrove

12

Broxbourne

4

Broxtowe

3

Burnley

2

Bury

5

Calderdale

108

Cambridge

42

Camden

85

Cannock Chase

1

Canterbury

132

Carlisle

105

Central Bedfordshire

11

Charnwood

2

Chelmsford

7

Cheltenham

46

Cherwell

51

Cheshire East

76

Cheshire West & Chester

107

Chesterfield

9

Chichester

200

Chiltern

10

Chorley

7

Christchurch

44

City of London

2

Colchester

28

Copeland

204

Corby

1

Cornwall

8,033

Cotswold

678

Coventry

2

Craven

411

Crawley

1

Croydon

1

Dacorum

24

Darlington

33

Dartford

2

Daventry

20

Derby

1

Derbyshire Dales

836

Doncaster

9

Dover

181

Durham

424

East Cambridgeshire

27

East Devon

580

East Dorset

50

East Hampshire

27

East Hertfordshire

20

East Lindsey

764

East Northamptonshire

20

East Riding of Yorkshire

538

East Staffordshire

40

Eastbourne

66

Eastleigh

10

Eden

679

Epping Forest

2

Erewash

3

Exeter

29

Fareham

15

Fenland

16

Forest Heath

19

Forest of Dean

223

Fylde

40

Gateshead

23

Gedling

5

Gloucester

9

Gosport

2

Great Yarmouth

960

Guildford

4

Halton

1

Hambleton

198

Hammersmith & Fulham

1

Harborough

12

Harrogate

352

Hartlepool

4

Hastings

50

Havant

13

Herefordshire

464

Hertsmere

3

High Peak

225

Hillingdon

4

Hinckley & Bosworth

8

Horsham

57

Huntingdonshire

28

Hyndburn

4

Ipswich

10

Isle of Wight

893

Isles of Scilly

190

Islington

2

Kensington & Chelsea

34

Kettering

2

King's Lynn & West Norfolk

735

Kingston-upon-Hull

21

Kirklees

93

Lambeth

1

Lancaster

117

Leeds

57

Leicester

14

Lewes

59

Lewisham

2

Lichfield

8

Lincoln

53

Liverpool

193

Luton

33

Maidstone

55

Maldon

58

Malvern Hills

117

Manchester

42

Mansfield

1

Medway

3

Melton

16

Mendip

187

Mid Devon

210

Mid Suffolk

123

Mid Sussex

29

Middlesbrough

28

Milton Keynes

23

Mole Valley

10

New Forest

289

Newark & Sherwood

45

Newcastle-under-Lyme

10

Newcastle-upon-Tyne

36

North Devon

1,252

North Dorset

115

North East Derbyshire

86

North East Lincolnshire

16

North Hertfordshire

5

North Kesteven

67

North Lincolnshire

33

North Norfolk

1,886

North Somerset

84

North Tyneside

10

North Warwickshire

21

North West Leicestershire

8

Northampton

1

Northumberland

1,916

Norwich

77

Nottingham

32

Oldham

9

Oxford

15

Pendle

31

Peterborough

2

Plymouth

73

Poole

120

Portsmouth

23

Preston

20

Purbeck

388

Reading

176

Redbridge

3

Redcar & Cleveland

84

Redditch

1

Reigate & Banstead

4

Ribble Valley

88

Richmondshire

608

Richmond-upon-Thames

3

Rochdale

8

Rochford

1

Rossendale

6

Rother

286

Rotherham

2

Rugby

11

Runnymede

5

Rushcliffe

31

Rutland

84

Ryedale

413

Salford

2

Scarborough

1,950

Sedgemoor

184

Sefton

39

Selby

27

Sevenoaks

18

Sheffield

35

Shepway

103

Shropshire

614

Slough

1

Solihull

3

South Bucks

2

South Cambridgeshire

48

South Derbyshire

28

South Gloucestershire

41

South Hams

1,416

South Holland

8

South Kesteven

33

South Lakeland

2,177

South Norfolk

159

South Northamptonshire

11

South Oxfordshire

13

South Ribble

2

South Somerset

217

South Staffordshire

8

South Tyneside

8

Southampton

83

Southend-on-Sea

10

Southwark

1

St Albans

17

St Edmundsbury

53

St Helens

2

Stafford

26

Staffordshire Moorlands

261

Stockport

11

Stockton-on-Tees

36

Stoke-on-Trent

1

Stratford-on-Avon

236

Stroud

109

Suffolk Coastal

697

Sunderland

29

Surrey Heath

1

Swale

51

Swindon

10

Tameside

3

Tandridge

1

Taunton Deane

128

Teignbridge

403

Telford & Wrekin

41

Tendring

90

Test Valley

39

Tewkesbury

80

Thanet

130

Tonbridge & Malling

16

Torbay

418

Torridge

954

Tower Hamlets

4

Tunbridge Wells

59

Uttlesford

32

Vale of White Horse

20

Wakefield

11

Wandsworth

4

Warrington

4

Warwick

35

Watford

1

Waveney

505

Waverley

11

Wealden

198

Wellingborough

4

Welwyn Hatfield

4

West Berkshire

22

West Devon

208

West Dorset

782

West Lancashire

14

West Lindsey

75

West Oxfordshire

131

West Somerset

393

Westminster

44

Weymouth & Portland

273

Wigan

3

Wiltshire

274

Winchester

92

Windsor & Maidenhead

31

Wirral

11

Woking

9

Wokingham

1

Wolverhampton

1

Worcester

2

Worthing

14

Wychavon

135

Wycombe

7

Wyre

48

Wyre Forest

22

York

320

Reticulating Splines