A POTENTIAL tax on empty residential properties – to help bring vacant homes back into use – is not currently being progressed by the Housing Minister due to budget constraints, it has emerged.
Deputy Sam Mézec yesterday told States Members that he did not have resources “to pursue the kind of option that I would like to help tackle empty homes”.
His comments came in response to a question from fellow Reform Jersey member Montfort Tadier, who asked whether the minister was “taking steps to implement an empty residential property tax or a similar mechanism”.
Deputy Tadier’s question referenced his successful proposition in 2022, which stated that “an effective mechanism should be introduced to discourage domestic properties from being left vacant for long periods”.
But Deputy Mézec responded: “I’m not currently taking any steps to implement an empty residential property tax.
“In a previous Government Plan several years ago, half a million pounds was allocated for a project to deal with empty homes – at the end of 2023 that funding expired with only 10% of it having been spent, but some unbudgeted commitments set to continue in 2024 when I took over office.”
He referenced a decision he made last year to shelve a scheme introduced by the previous Housing Minister, Deputy David Warr, which asked Islanders to report vacant properties.
The service formed part of Deputy Warr’s Action on Vacant Properties plan – a 35-page document released in 2022 that outlined objectives designed to tackle the problem of empty homes in Jersey, of which there were estimated to be around 900.
“Because those commitments constituted little more than managing a spreadsheet of data of empty homes – and not actual action to tackle empty homes – I decided to suspend that service because I regarded it as bad value for money,” Deputy Mézec continued.
“I regret that, because that half a million pounds of funding for a project like this expired and went back in as an underspend, I don’t have resources within my budget at this point to pursue the kind of option that I would like to help tackle empty homes.”
Despite this, Deputy Mézec said his preferred options for addressing the issue remained “some kind of empty residential property tax or the introduction of empty property management orders”.
“But in the absence of being able to undertake that kind of project, members of my staff have been working with His Majesty’s Receiver General to assist him in using some of the old legal powers that he has to bring some formerly-empty homes back into use,” he added.
“So I’m pleased to see some of that has been happening, and I continue to liaise with some of my colleagues in government about government-owned empty homes, where there are opportunities to bring some of those back into use as well.”
