Purbeck District Council levies £1,000 charge for home extensions

Published 17th Jun 2008

Families are being charged a £1,000 “bedroom tax” to extend their homes under a new interpretation of town hall planning rules.

Ministers say that there is nothing they can do to stop local authorities levying the charge, giving the go-ahead to all councils to follow the example of Purbeck, Dorset, which has raised £90,000 from the tax.

Under the 1990 Town and Country Planning Act, developers are required to help with the cost of roads and other local facilities when they build housing or office developments. But this is the first time that the Act has been applied to residents who are trying to improve their homes.

Purbeck District Council said that it needed the money to pay for roads and public transport, adding that many other councils were looking at the tax “very closely and seriously”.

Jim Knight, Labour MP for South Dorset and the Schools Minister, said that the practice was legitimate and suggested there was nothing to stop other councils following suit, but he criticised Purbeck for “taking it to extremes”.

Matthew Elliott, the chief executive of the TaxPayer's Alliance, condemned the tactic. “This is disgraceful behaviour from the council, squeezing large amounts of money out of ordinary families at a time when many can hardly afford to pay even their council tax,” he said. “It's an abuse of powers that were intended to be used on large-scale commercial developers.”

The council is charging residents £993 for each extra bedroom they build or any room “having the capacity to be a bedroom”. It has raised £90,000 from families since January 2007 and £350,000 from the tax overall, including from the more conventional route of residential, industrial and retail developments.

Alan Davies, development control manager at the council, said that unless the authority had acted, transport services would have declined.

He said: “If they are going to add to the existing highway network by means of trips, we would like a contribution towards that. The alternative is to refuse all planning applications or bring in a congestion charge, which the council looked at and decided wasn't fair.”

The Local Government Association said that Purbeck was the only council it knew of using the tax in this way, but said there could soon be more. “Last year councils received the worst settlement in a decade from the Government, which has left councils with tough choices between raising council tax and providing people with vital local services,” a spokesman said.

The Tories called the tax punitive. Eric Pickles, the party's local government spokesman, said: “Under Labour, you'll be taxed if you move, and taxed if you don't. The housing market needs this new bedroom tax like a hole in the head.”

Mr Knight said the move was leading to great unfairness. “Purbeck is taking that to an extreme so that if constituents apply for an extension to their house they are charged £1,000 on the assumption that it is an extra bedroom. In one case, the extension was a one up, one down and they were charged £2,000 on the basis that both rooms could be bedrooms.”

Rosemary Bennett

Source: ' TheTimes '

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