Should measures to further encourage full utilisation of land and built environment such as:
1. Taxing empty office buildings as vacant properties to encourage rapid conversion to living accommodation. ?
2. Requiring all high rise office developments to contain a proportion of apartments to promote the full utilisation of investments rather than 9-5 city centres.
I can see the merit in these suggestions. 1. We need to incenvitise producitve use of land, and tax is an effective means of doing so. As we outline in the report, vacancy is paid for by the public in lost business rates, which typically fund urban service, so taxing vacant commercial buildings does seem a sensible way of clawing this public cost back while also creating an incentive to ensure that once a buildign is completed, it is occupied.
2. If our proposals were implemented, new high-rise developments would be designed so they can become housing where needed — but without predetermining the outcome, allowing cities to respond flexibly as needs shift over time.
One item worth noting is that commercial buildings used by state bodies are exempt from business rates so local authorities don’t get funding for these premises to meet the cost of serving them.
Should measures to further encourage full utilisation of land and built environment such as:
1. Taxing empty office buildings as vacant properties to encourage rapid conversion to living accommodation. ?
2. Requiring all high rise office developments to contain a proportion of apartments to promote the full utilisation of investments rather than 9-5 city centres.
Hi Bud,
Thanks for engaging with the paper.
I can see the merit in these suggestions. 1. We need to incenvitise producitve use of land, and tax is an effective means of doing so. As we outline in the report, vacancy is paid for by the public in lost business rates, which typically fund urban service, so taxing vacant commercial buildings does seem a sensible way of clawing this public cost back while also creating an incentive to ensure that once a buildign is completed, it is occupied.
2. If our proposals were implemented, new high-rise developments would be designed so they can become housing where needed — but without predetermining the outcome, allowing cities to respond flexibly as needs shift over time.
One item worth noting is that commercial buildings used by state bodies are exempt from business rates so local authorities don’t get funding for these premises to meet the cost of serving them.