Explanatory note

These Regulations amend regulations 1, 2 and 6 of the Council Tax (Prescribed Classes of Dwellings) (England) Regulations 2003, (“the Regulations”), to provide, except as mentioned in the next paragraph, that where a council tax payer has a job-related dwelling and another home, a council tax discount of 50% is retained on the second home in England when his or her main home is in England, Wales or Scotland, (regardless of whether it is the main dwelling or the second home which is job-related.) Previously, the Regulations only prevented the billing authority for the area within which the second home was situated from reducing the discount on that dwelling from 50% if the main home was also in England.

The effect of the amendments is also to preserve the second home council tax discount of 50% where a member of service personnel or a minister of religion has a second home in England but lives in a job-related dwelling in England, Wales or Scotland.

A full regulatory impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument, as it has no impact on the costs of businesses, charities or voluntary bodies. Neither does it have any significant impact on the public sector.