Background

From 1 April 2017, Wrexham Council would be able to charge a premium of up to 100% of the standard rate of Council Tax on long term empty homes and second homes. The Council is contemplating charging a premium of 50% in respect of both long term empty and second homes. The purpose of this consultation is to seek people’s views on these proposals, this consultation closes on 6 March 2016.

What is a Long Term Empty Home

• A long term empty home is defined as a dwelling which is both empty and substantially unfurnished for a continuous period of at least one year. In considering whether a dwelling has been empty for one year, the council disregards any period prior to 1 April 2016, also any occupation of less than 6 weeks is also disregarded.

What is a Second Home

• A second home is defined as a dwelling which is not an individual’s main home and is substantially furnished.

Why is the Council considering charging a premium on these type of properties.
The intention to charge a premium on these type of properties is to help the council bring long term empty homes back into use to provide safe, secure and affordable homes, which forms part of the Councils Local Housing Strategy.

If an owner of a long term empty property requires help in the form of financial support to bring the property back into use, the council may be able to help in the form of grants or loans and can provide information on this area if required.
Are there exceptions to avoid a premium being charged?

In a limited number of cases there are exceptions available which mean that a long term empty property or second home may not be subject to the premium for a specific period, some examples of where exceptions apply are listed below for guidance:

• Dwelling being marketed for sale or let – would be given an exception for a maximum of 1 year
• Annexe which forms part of a main dwelling
• Dwelling which is someone’s main residence if they were not residing in armed forces accommodation
• Occupied caravan pitches and boat moorings
• Seasonal homes where year-round occupation is prohibited
• Job related dwellings

There could be other factors also which the authority may decide not to levy the premium, these will be considered as part of the decision making process as to whether to charge a premium.

The Council has a plan that sets out what we want to achieve to make Wrexham a better place. Every year the Council refreshes this plan. We want the plan to be right, so we want to hear from local people.

The Council is facing ongoing budgets cuts and we are working hard to ensure the services we continue to provide whilst making savings are effective and efficient.  Your views will help us decide where we should focus our efforts and resources across the Council Plan.  The financial challenge means it is inevitable that the range and level of services we offer will reduce. What you tell us here will also help us identify where we can continue to save money in the years to come.

The survey received just under 1000 responses.  People also gave us their views on social media, at a consultation event, and through specific consultations with young people and people with protected characteristics. Thank you for taking the time to give us your views, the 'Key Findings' report below outlines the results of this consultation.

A really important part of any consultation is feeding back to the participants about what has happened since they gave their opinions and what effect their views have had.  This process of feedback is about being able to show where views expressed have directly impacted on proposals, and also explaining when there are times we could not do everything suggested by the public, and explaining why. The ‘You Said, We Did’ report below highlights how the findings of the ‘What is important to you?’ consultation have informed the Council Plan for 2016/17. 

Wrexham LSB partners conducted a consultation in September/October 2015 to establish whether the current Equality Objectives were still relevant, needed amending or if anything should be added. 

Analysis of the consultation feedback confirmed that the Council should continue to focus on the existing Strategic Equality Objectives when implementing or further developing the Council Plan and the Strategies and Plan that underpin it.

There were two  main  themes with regard to the feedback.  Firstly, those choosing to contact the Council in Welsh via the contact centre stated that they were often disappointed that even though they opted for a Welsh language service that it was not available and that their call would be dealt with in English.  Secondly, the lack of availability of Welsh speaking officers to  deal with queries in Welsh in Council departments.  Many acknowledged that staff were answering phones bilingually but felt frustrated that they couldn’t then continue with the call in Welsh.  Even though officers were following the Council’s procedures with regard to dealing with calls in Welsh many of those who completed the questionnaire were dissatisfied with the lack of fluent Welsh speakers in the organisation

Since the survey was undertaken the Council has been served with its Final Compliance Notice from the Welsh Language Commissioner and the Standards have come into force. This has resulted in Welsh speaking customer service advisors being made available in the contact centre, both for dealing with customers face to face and over the phone.  With regard to Welsh speaking officers in the workforce the Council continues to seek opportunities to recruit Welsh language speakers and the introduction of the Standards has resulted in a strengthening and improving the Council’s recruitment procedures which in turn will hopefully result in more posts being advertised as Welsh essential and filled by Welsh speakers. The Council has recently updated its list of Welsh speakers and all staff have been made aware of how to deal with calls in Welsh and how to contact our internal Welsh speakers. The Council actively seeks to recruit Welsh speakers and has been using different techniques/methods in order to try and reach as wide a Welsh speaking pool of potential recruits as is can  and to provide as many opportunities as possible for Welsh essential posts to be filled by Welsh speakers.

In the 2016 play sufficiency survey 73% of children rated their satisfaction with their opportunities for play as ‘good’ or ‘great’, 19% rated it as ‘ok but in need of improvement’ and 8% rated it ‘not good or rubbish. This compares with 70%, 20% and 10% respectively in 2013, suggesting an improvement of 3% in overall satisfaction levels. However whilst the 2013 survey included all ages of children, the 2016 survey only involved 9 and 10 year olds (those in year five at school). If only the results from children aged 9 and 10 in 2013 are taken into account then the overall satisfaction levels have increased by more like 5%.

In contrast to children, 36% of parents in the 2016 survey rated their satisfaction with their children’s opportunities for play as ‘good’ or ‘great’, 34% rated them as ‘ok but in need of improvement’ and 30% rated them ‘not good or rubbish.’ This compares with 26%, 34% and 40% respectively in 2013, suggesting a 10% improvement in satisfaction levels.

The Welsh Government’s statutory guidance for completing play sufficiency assessments sets out nine ‘matters’ that need to be taken into account each containing a range of specific criteria that Wrexham must offer a progress report against. When considering the above re-developed priorities against each of these matters Wrexham’s second PSA identifies the following key ‘systems’, which together would enable the Local Authority and its partners to work towards securing sufficient opportunities for children’s play across the county borough:

Planning for Play

Playwork as Community Development

 Professional Development for Play

Play Development Team

 Policies for Play

Partnerships for Play

This is our annual consultation.