Miliband would raise tax on “ghost homes”

Ed Miliband has said that owners of empty "ghost" homes, who buy them as an investment and help to drive up house prices, would be hit by bigger tax penalties under a Labour Government. In an interview with the Evening Standard, Mr Miliband said he would target London's 60,000 "ghost homes" by letting councils charge double their council tax on properties left empty for more than a year. Since April last year councils have had the power to impose a 50% surcharge on properties that have been unoccupied for two years, but Labour says that while half of all 15 of London's Labour-run boroughs have introduced the empty homes premium, Conservative and Lib Dem-run councils in London had failed to use the powers at all. Mr Miliband has also pledged to kickstart house building in the UK and says that Labour would construct 300,000 new homes in the next parliament. "When I think about the prospect of becoming prime minister next year, housing is one of the absolute top priorities because it is a crisis," he stated.