Landlords could face 5 billion pounds' "empty property tax"

Residential landlords in the UK would face a £5 billion bill on empty properties under controversial new proposals set to be put to Alistair Darling.

The chancellor should levy a tax on the one million homes left empty by landlords to plug holes in the country's economy, Brendan Barber, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), told the Observer.

Under the proposals, landlords could be expected to pay an average of £5,875 for each empty property, around five times more than current council tax rates.

Mr Barber claimed these radical measures would help cut housing shortages around the UK by making more property available to the rental and first-time-buyer markets.

A British income tax on overseas landlords, who earn rental revenue on properties in the UK, was also proposed by the TUC.

Overseas landlords, who make "purely speculative" investment purchases, are partly to blame for the number of empty homes in the UK, the TUC claimed.

The proposals will be put forward at an economic conference in London later this month.

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