Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of removing local authority discretion to waive the Council Tax premium on second homes in cases where the second property is used for essential non-luxury purposes on homeowners.

Decisions on whether to apply council tax premiums are a matter for individual councils. Where a council chooses to implement a premium, they have the discretionary power to set their own local exceptions to premiums, or provide discounts where they consider this appropriate. The government has no plans to restrict or remove these powers.