{"id":33958,"date":"2019-03-01T15:12:08","date_gmt":"2019-03-01T15:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/?p=33958"},"modified":"2019-03-01T15:12:08","modified_gmt":"2019-03-01T15:12:08","slug":"vale-increases-council-tax-on-empty-properties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/03\/01\/vale-increases-council-tax-on-empty-properties\/","title":{"rendered":"Vale council increases tax rate on empty properties"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure id=\"attachment_33981\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-33981\" style=\"width: 620px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-33981 size-blog-grid\" src=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/03\/john-thomas-620x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"620\" height=\"400\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-33981\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-33981 size-blog-grid\" src=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/03\/john-thomas-620x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"620\" height=\"400\" \/><\/noscript> Vale of Glamorgan Council leader John Thomas<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nVALE of Glamorgan Council has agreed to apply the full rate of council tax to residential properties left vacant for more than six months.<br \/>\nCurrently empty houses are charged only 50 per cent council tax.<br \/>\nThe council wants to push developers to fill empty properties to take pressure off the wider housing market. There are 780 such vacant properties in the Vale of Glamorgan.<br \/>\nThe Vale\u2019s cabinet has also proposed a 4.99 per cent increase in council tax, but failed to pass it through the full council, Wednesday February 27.<br \/>\nIf these empty houses are taxed at the full new proposed rate, \u00a31245.06 for Band D properties, they could net an additional \u00a3485,500 in tax revenue for the cash-strapped council.<br \/>\nAt the council meeting, it was also revealed that Vale of Glamorgan had actually collected \u00a34 million more council tax than it had expected in the 2018\/19 budget.<br \/>\nPart of this sum was used to plug the gap left by the council\u2019s missed \u00a3724,000 in savings last year.<br \/>\nThe council has had to make \u00a355 million in cuts since 2010 and needs to make a further \u00a33.7 million in budget reductions in 2019\/20.<br \/>\nThe Vale predicts it will have to make yet more cuts totalling between \u00a313.3 million and \u00a317.62 million, at current and projected funding levels, over the next three years.<br \/>\nThis comes on top of a reduction in central funding from the Welsh Government of \u00a31.8 million from the previous year.<br \/>\nLeader of the Vale of Glamorgan Council, John Thomas said: &#8220;I don&#8217;t see austerity being over at the moment. I hope it is but we will have to wait and see.\u201d<br \/>\n<figure id=\"attachment_33979\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-33979\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-33979\" src=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/03\/Screenshot-2019-03-01-at-13.50.44-790x435.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"265\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-33979\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-33979\" src=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/03\/Screenshot-2019-03-01-at-13.50.44-790x435.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"265\" \/><\/noscript> Proportional decrease in council budget since 2010<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nLabour councillor for Penarth, Mark Wilson, said at the council meeting: \u201cYou have to find more innovative ways of raising finance. I don\u2019t see any progress on that. An opportunity is being missed by this administration.\u201d<br \/>\nLeader of the Plaid Cymru faction, Coun Ian Johnson, criticised the hike and proposed a lower 3.5 per cent rise. He said: \u201cPlaid Cymru recognise that local government is being forced into a position where it has to raise council tax by greater than inflation because of underfunding by the Conservative Government in Westminster and the Labour Government in Cardiff.<br \/>\n\u201cDespite that, we felt that the proposed increase of 4.9% was too much for the people that we represent, and put forward an alternative of 3.5%, which we thought was a fair compromise between the needs of the council and the needs of real people.<br \/>\n\u201cWe\u2019re disappointed that this was rejected by other parties, some of whom whinged and moaned but put forward no positive option themselves.\u201d<br \/>\nSpeaking to <em>The Cardiffian<\/em>, many Barry residents expressed anger at this hike in council tax.<br \/>\nCheryl Ockerby said: \u201cThis will mean an increase of \u00a374 for me. I have just been told by Swalec that my gas and electricity will go up by \u00a3167.75 on April 1.<br \/>\n\u201cIf my salary was going up by \u00a320 a month to cover these increases I guess it wouldn\u2019t be a problem, but it isn\u2019t.\u201d<br \/>\nIan Perry said: \u201cCouncil tax is regressive and unfair. The council tax bands are outdated and result in the wealthiest failing to pay their fair share, whilst piling more of the tax burden on the less wealthy. A Land Value Tax, with no bands, would be fair and needs to replace Council Tax.<br \/>\n\u201cThe problem is not the council, or any council, it&#8217;s the successive Tory governments who have decided to destroy local government and replace it with entirely private services.\u201d<br \/>\nThe final rate of council tax for next year will be decided at an extraordinary council meeting, by Friday March 8.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>VALE of Glamorgan Council has agreed to apply the full rate of council tax to residential properties left vacant for more than six months. Currently empty houses are charged only 50 per cent council tax. The council wants to push developers to fill empty properties to take pressure off the wider housing market. There are 780 such vacant properties in the Vale of Glamorgan. The Vale\u2019s cabinet has also proposed a 4.99 per cent increase in council tax, but failed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":33981,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[929,498,6466,6467,427],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-33958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-budget","tag-council-tax","tag-empty-homes","tag-rise","tag-vale-of-glamorgan"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Vale council increases tax rate on empty properties - The Cardiffian<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/03\/01\/vale-increases-council-tax-on-empty-properties\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Vale council increases tax rate on empty properties - The Cardiffian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"VALE of Glamorgan Council has agreed to apply the full rate of council tax to residential properties left vacant for more than six months. Currently empty houses are charged only 50 per cent council tax. The council wants to push developers to fill empty properties to take pressure off the wider housing market. There are 780 such vacant properties in the Vale of Glamorgan. The Vale\u2019s cabinet has also proposed a 4.99 per cent increase in council tax, but failed [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/03\/01\/vale-increases-council-tax-on-empty-properties\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Cardiffian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-03-01T15:12:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/03\/john-thomas.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"620\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"410\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"William Morgan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"William Morgan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/03\/01\/vale-increases-council-tax-on-empty-properties\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/03\/01\/vale-increases-council-tax-on-empty-properties\/\",\"name\":\"Vale council increases tax rate on empty properties - The Cardiffian\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/03\/01\/vale-increases-council-tax-on-empty-properties\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/03\/01\/vale-increases-council-tax-on-empty-properties\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/03\/john-thomas.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-03-01T15:12:08+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#\/schema\/person\/a4afa5b58c6b97d1c7e2c19be611be17\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/03\/01\/vale-increases-council-tax-on-empty-properties\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/03\/01\/vale-increases-council-tax-on-empty-properties\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/03\/01\/vale-increases-council-tax-on-empty-properties\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/03\/john-thomas.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/03\/john-thomas.jpg\",\"width\":620,\"height\":410,\"caption\":\"Vale of Glamorgan Council leader John Thomas\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/03\/01\/vale-increases-council-tax-on-empty-properties\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Vale council increases tax rate on empty properties\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/\",\"name\":\"The Cardiffian\",\"description\":\"Just another JOMEC Sites Network site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#\/schema\/person\/a4afa5b58c6b97d1c7e2c19be611be17\",\"name\":\"William Morgan\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/2c2b5cfaa03b1aa4b80b372f8d88b0e7\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/40a295b88369509b15ddb3a12c86c6041d9bea5486238f3c48aae234081083f9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/40a295b88369509b15ddb3a12c86c6041d9bea5486238f3c48aae234081083f9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"William Morgan\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/author\/morgan-w\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Vale council increases tax rate on empty properties - The Cardiffian","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/03\/01\/vale-increases-council-tax-on-empty-properties\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Vale council increases tax rate on empty properties - The Cardiffian","og_description":"VALE of Glamorgan Council has agreed to apply the full rate of council tax to residential properties left vacant for more than six months. Currently empty houses are charged only 50 per cent council tax. The council wants to push developers to fill empty properties to take pressure off the wider housing market. There are 780 such vacant properties in the Vale of Glamorgan. The Vale\u2019s cabinet has also proposed a 4.99 per cent increase in council tax, but failed [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/03\/01\/vale-increases-council-tax-on-empty-properties\/","og_site_name":"The Cardiffian","article_published_time":"2019-03-01T15:12:08+00:00","og_image":[{"width":620,"height":410,"url":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/03\/john-thomas.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"William Morgan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"William Morgan","Estimated reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/03\/01\/vale-increases-council-tax-on-empty-properties\/","url":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/03\/01\/vale-increases-council-tax-on-empty-properties\/","name":"Vale council increases tax rate on empty properties - The Cardiffian","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/03\/01\/vale-increases-council-tax-on-empty-properties\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/03\/01\/vale-increases-council-tax-on-empty-properties\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/03\/john-thomas.jpg","datePublished":"2019-03-01T15:12:08+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#\/schema\/person\/a4afa5b58c6b97d1c7e2c19be611be17"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/03\/01\/vale-increases-council-tax-on-empty-properties\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/03\/01\/vale-increases-council-tax-on-empty-properties\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/03\/01\/vale-increases-council-tax-on-empty-properties\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/03\/john-thomas.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/03\/john-thomas.jpg","width":620,"height":410,"caption":"Vale of Glamorgan Council leader John Thomas"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/03\/01\/vale-increases-council-tax-on-empty-properties\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Vale council increases tax rate on empty properties"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#website","url":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/","name":"The Cardiffian","description":"Just another JOMEC Sites Network site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#\/schema\/person\/a4afa5b58c6b97d1c7e2c19be611be17","name":"William Morgan","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/2c2b5cfaa03b1aa4b80b372f8d88b0e7","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/40a295b88369509b15ddb3a12c86c6041d9bea5486238f3c48aae234081083f9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/40a295b88369509b15ddb3a12c86c6041d9bea5486238f3c48aae234081083f9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"William Morgan"},"url":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/author\/morgan-w\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33958"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=33958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}