Second home owners currently receiving a 10% reduction on their council tax will be stung for potentially hundreds of pounds extra a year, after Cornwall Council today became the first local authority in the country to approve ending second home discounts, the Daily Mail reports.
The council’s cabinet has also agreed to charge anyone who leaves a property vacant and unfurnished in the county for at least two years 150% of their bill, costing those with the most valuable properties around £1,500 a year extra.
Someone with an empty band D property for more than two years in the picturesque seaside town of Padstow would have to pay an extra £702.46 on top of their £1,404.14 a year council tax bill.
And anyone lucky enough to have a band H property a stone’s throw from the Eden Project in St Austell Bay, which they left empty, would face an annual tax bill of £4,329.18, compared to £2,886.12 now.
Meanwhile, those with a second home in band D in the surf-haven of Newquay will no longer get a 10% discount on their £1,459.85 tax bill, costing them an extra £140.99.
