Ms Jude Sherry:

We know the data is a massive problem but our definition of vacancy is also a massive problem. Even within the Government, it is different depending on what it is doing. For the vacant homes tax, it is if you use your building less than 30 days a year, which is insane. I do not know how they came up with that definition because it is out of whack with how the rest of the country defines it based on whether it is a primary residence. It could be six months, which is defined as a long-term vacancy in Amsterdam. It could a year, 18 months or two years. That is up to how that time period is set.

When it comes to the vacant homes grant, that is a home that has been empty for two years. Therefore, there are massive differences. When we look at the applications for vacant homes grants, there were just 3,700 in its first year. That number changed within the first year to 37,000 because it is self-reporting. The owners decide themselves whether they want to report it. In Canada, everyone is assumed to have a vacant home. They have to fill out their property tax every year and if a person does not do so, they are fined for the vacant homes tax. People have to fill out a form stating they are living in the property as their primary residence. We do not know where people are living. We do not know which homes are used for holiday homes as opposed to which homes are used for primary residences. That is where there are massive problems as well. We would like to see Revenue combining the data sets, as complicated as that is, as well as getting people to state they are living in a house and that it is their primary residence, along with other family members or whoever else is living there. That is something that is done in the UK on a very regular basis through the council tax. In the Netherlands, people have to have a registration of their primary residence. That is tied into their tax and banks. People cannot open a bank account without it. It is tied into their health insurance and healthcare as well. It ties in multiple areas into one primary residence registration.

We do not know exactly how many vacant or derelict properties are out there but we know the vacant tax is only applying to between 1.5% to 3.7% of the homes that have been identified from other bodies, whether that is the census or GeoDirectory.

The challenge with the living city initiative is that it is only tied into a few different areas. It is not across the country. It is possibly not as attractive as the grant because it is a tax break over a ten-year period as opposed to a cash grant, which is obviously more attractive.