FOI Request - Empty Homes

Request 101003087876

Under FOISA, I am looking for information relating to the number of empty homes in your area, statistical information about how long those homes have been empty for, and the numbers that are paying a council tax surcharge.

Specifically the information I am looking for is:

1. Number of homes in Council on Council Tax system
2. Number of empty homes by the number of years they have been empty for, broken down by years, 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10+
3. Number of homes empty per 1000 on the system
4. Total number of homes empty
5. Number of empty homes where 100% surcharge is applied to Council Tax account by the number of years empty, broken down by years 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10+
6. Number of empty homes no council tax is being received for by the number of years they have been empty for, broken down by years, 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10+

Update to request received 07-06-2022:

For the avoidance of doubt, the 1 year should include those over 1 year, and up to two years.

Response 30-06-2022

1.       There are 46498 properties on Council Tax on 21st June 2022

2.       Below are the numbers of empty properties in the timescales requested, as at 21st June 2022
<1 year – 1283
1 to 2 years – 803
2 to 3 years – 602
3 to 4 years – 275
4 to 5 years – 131
5 to 6 years – 101
6 to 7 years – 98
7 to 8 years – 70
8 to 9 years – 51
9 to 10 years – 55
>10 years – 661

3.       There are 89 empty properties per 1000 overall properties

4.       There are 4130 empty properties as at 21st June 2022

5.       The Scottish Government gave local authorities the power to add the Council Tax Levy from 1st April 2013.  Moray Council only started applying the levy from 1st April 2014 at 50% and then from 1st April 2015 at 100%
<1 year – 4 (these were previously empty long term and only had a very short period of occupancy before becoming empty again, so levy was still applicable)
1 to 2 years – 129
2 to 3 years – 58
3 to 4 years – 32
4 to 5 years – 38
5 to 6 years – 32
6 to 7 years – 29
7 to 8 years – 19
8 to 9 years – 4
9 to 10 years – 13
>10 years – 71

       6.    See below breakdown for empty properties where no payment has been received since empty
               <1 year – 116
               1 to 2 years – 12
               2 to 3 years – 1
               3 to 4 years – 1
               4 to 5 years – 2
               5 to 6 years – 1
               6 to 7 years – 1
               7 to 8 years – 0
               8 to 9 years – 1
               9 to 10 years – 1
               >10 years – 1