Council owed millions in empty house tax amid homeless crisis.
MORE than 1,000 homes are sitting empty in Wirral while a similar number of people are recorded as homeless each year, a councillor has warned.
Cllr Stuart Kelly slammed the “criminal waste" of 1,070 empty homes across the borough as he called on leader Paula Basnett to bring empty properties back into use and collect millions of pounds in unpaid council tax.
Raising the issue at a meeting of the full council on Monday (October 12), Cllr Kelly highlighted the large stock of empty homes as a potential solution to Wirral's homelessness crisis. The Liberal Democrat councillor calculated that uncollected tax on empty homes could be £4 million by the end of this tax year.
Cllr Kelly said: “Here on Wirral around 1,000 people present as homeless to housing services per year on average, whilst at the same time there are 1,000 empty and unused houses.
“Not only is this a criminal waste of potential homes, it also means that the council is losing out on millions of pounds of income.”
Council figures seen by the Globe show 584 properties had been empty and unfurnished for more than a year and were attracting the long-term empty property premium as of July 1. Across Wirral, 177 properties had been empty for more than three years, 149 for more than five years and 77 for more than a decade. A further 486 furnished but unoccupied properties were attracting the council’s second-home premium.
Under council tax rules, properties left empty for between one and five years are charged a 100 per cent premium. For properties empty for between five and 10 years, the bill rises to 300 per cent, while those empty for more than a decade can face a total charge of 400 per cent.
Council figures show just over £10m in council tax had been charged to empty properties for 2026/27, with £1.45m received as of July 1, equivalent to a collection rate of 14.3 per cent at that point in the financial year.
Cllr Kelly told councillors: “I would urge the council leader to look closely at this not only to encourage empty houses back into use but imagine which cuts might have been unnecessary if the treasury was boosted by bringing in enough empty property unpaid council taxes.
“This has clearly not been receiving the priority it deserves as part of budget setting.”
Cllr Kelly also called for greater use of Empty Dwelling Management Orders (EDMOs), which he said were another tool available to authorities trying to tackle empty homes.
SOURCE: Wirral Globe