Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she has made an assessment of trends in the level of people being required to pay full council tax after vacating properties due to flooding.

The government does not collect data on the council tax paid by all homes which are empty due to flooding. However, where a property is assessed as uninhabitable it may be removed from the council tax list, making it no longer liable for council tax. Councils also have the power to provide discretionary council tax discounts where they consider this appropriate. In exceptional circumstances the government may activate the flood recovery framework, requesting councils to provide a 100% council tax discount for affected homes.