West Lothian’s Conservative group leader has criticised a “ridiculous” Holyrood consultation paper on council tax increases for second and empty homes.
The council was asked for its thoughts on increasing charges for homes which lie empty for most of the year.
The questionnaire - 17 pages long with 24 questions - asked the council for detailed responses on increasing council tax charges, and thresholds for non domestic rates.
READ MORE: West Lothian town centres have 'too many cars and too few buses'
Several questions asked the council to imagine they were second home owners, and if they were, what their response would be.
Council officers chose not to respond in the answers they presented to councillors for approval by the Executive before submitting the responses to Holyrood.
Damian Doran-Timson told the meeting: “Well done for not answering ridiculous questions that are in here. Asking people to imagine they did have a second property and what they would do. It’s like something you’d give out to primary school children.”
Councillor Doran-Timson also criticised the officers' responses to three of the questions in the consultation paper.
Officers agreed with the question: “Do you think councils should be able to charge a council tax premium on top of regular council tax rates for second homes?
The Conservative group leader said the council should be saying no to this and three other questions covering charges for holiday lets.
Councillor Doran-Timson said: “People can fall into second home ownership through no fault of their own. They may not be able to get rid of that property and we are penalising them for that.
“On the issues of self catering holiday accommodation we have spoken here about needing to support business and commercial operations out there. Some of the charges proposed [ in this questionnaire] are anti-business.”
Head of Finance Donald Forrest told the meeting that the Scottish Government consultation paper’s “proposals to grant councils more discretionary fiscal powers to increase charges for Council Tax second and long-term empty homes should be welcomed.”
He added: “If granted these could be used to the benefit of our local communities, noting they should be a decision to be made locally by each council.”
Under the council’s current discretionary charging policy on second homes/long term empty properties owners of second homes are liable to pay the full Council Tax charge for the property.
There are currently 86 second homes liable for full Council Tax in West Lothian.
However, under the regulations certain categories of second homes are entitled to a 50% discount. These are ‘purpose-built holiday accommodation’ and ‘job related dwellings’.
There are currently 322 long term empty homes liable for Council Tax and 59 self-catering accommodation properties in West Lothian.
Councillor Doran -Timson proposed an amendment to the council response to the consultation but this was defeated by 11 votes to two
Chairing the meeting Council leader Lawrence Fitzpatrick said there were a lot of concerns about second homes and the effects on villages and other communities about homes lying empty.
He added: “In an ideal world we’d all have one home. I think the officers have balanced their responses right here.”
