Edinburgh Council is set to introduce changes to council tax in a bid to tackle the issue of empty homes in the city.

A report to the Council's Finance and Budget Committee outlining the plans was approved yesterday.

In the report, there are plans to reduce the council tax discount rate for empty and unfurnished homes from 50% to 10% after six months and increasing council tax by 100% after 12 months.

The planned changes follow new Scottish Government arrangements enable councils, in certain circumstances, to use council tax as an incentive for encouraging owners of empty homes to bring them back into use and increase the available property stock.

This is specifically to tackle empty and unfurnished homes that have been lying unused for an extended period of time. Council tax would continue to be waived for the first six months of a property being empty and generous discounts would be applied if the property is actively being marketed.

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Councillor Alasdair Rankin, the city's Finance and Budget Convener, said: "Even though Edinburgh has a relatively low level of empty homes in both the social and private sectors, the Council has a duty to look at all the options open to us to deliver more homes.

"It is of utmost importance that we bring more empty homes back into use and council tax is just one of the avenues that the Council is looking to use. This report is undoubtedly a major step forward in tackling this pressing issue."

The work forms part of the city's Empty Homes Task Force which was established by the Council with the objective of bringing empty homes back into use. The Task Force has representatives from all political groups, Shelter/Scottish Empty Homes Partnership, Orchard and Shipman and Link Housing Association.

Council records indicate that there are over 1,700 properties classed as long-term empty and approximately 5,800 properties attracting second home discounts. It is planned that the policy will be implemented in the second half of 2013-14.

(JP)