Julian Knight – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julian Knight on 2016-03-02.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has carried out an impact assessment on the effect of devolving the taxation of vacant land held by developers to local authorities in England and Wales.

Mr David Gauke

The Government has not carried out an impact assessment of the effect of devolving the taxation of vacant land held by developers to local authorities in England and Wales.

All taxes are kept under review, and any move to introduce such a tax or devolve responsibility to Local Authorities would have to be carefully considered. In particular, the interaction with existing taxes and incentives, the detailed design and collection, the objectives of the tax and the method (and frequency) by which land would be valued would all need careful thought