Second homeowners in Edinburgh will have to pay up to £16,000 – four times the existing rate – in council tax after councillors approved a huge annual premium for these properties.
The Scottish capital is introducing a 300 per cent premium for both second and long-term empty homes in a bid to bring unused homes into permanent occupation.
It means Edinburgh’s second homeowners in the highest council tax band will have to pay £15,935 a year. Those in the average band, D, will see their annual bill hiked from £1,626 to £6,504.
Some owners and property experts condemned Edinburgh City Council’s move as “cruel, unfair and performative”. But some housing campaigners told The i Paper that wealthy owners could afford the “long overdue” levy.
Similar taxes in England and Wales
Edinburgh’s follows similar moves across England, where the majority of local authorities have doubled council tax for second homes. Rules brought in by the last Conservative Government allow a 100 per cent premium.
Some councils in Wales have gone for premiums of 150 per cent, with the Welsh Government allowing levies of up to 300 per cent. In Scotland, there is no limit on the premiums councils can charge.
Ministers in London, Edinburgh and Cardiff have said they want to encourage second homeowners to either rent out their properties or sell them to first-time buyers.
Cornwall Council has hit second homeowners with a 100 per cent premium (Photo: Kevin Britland/Getty)Previous analysis by The i Paper revealed that 85 per cent of English councils have adopted a 100 per cent premium on second and empty homes.
It has had a particularly striking effect in Cornwall, one of the biggest holiday destinations for second homeowners.
Cornwall Council raised £25m from the levy in the 2025-2026 financial year, according to Freedom of Information data.
Edinburgh accused of ‘performative’ move
Edinburgh City Council hopes to raise £4m a year from its 300 per cent premium, which will come into force from January.
Across council tax bands, there are 1,400 second homes in the desirable Scottish capital, with an additional 1,700 long-term empty properties.
The council plans to use the money raised for affordable housing. The policy may also help to reduce “upward pressure” on house prices and rents, the council said, since affected owners may look to sell up or let their property.
However, David Alexander, chief executive of DJ Alexander estate agents, called it a “performative exercise” that he believes will “not substantially increase the availability of affordable homes and will not reduce rents or prices as claimed”.
He said the policy was “unfair” in that it has the potential to “break family ties with home for those who may have retained a family home but work elsewhere”.
Alexander said older people who “may want to return to Edinburgh when they retire may now be put off”.
‘We’re not talking about super wealthy people’
Colin Taylor, one of the founders of the Second Homeowners for Fair Treatment (SHOFT) campaign, said such premiums were “extremely cruel” in that it mostly picks on older people and pensioners.
Highland Council tripled the council tax charge on second homes this year.
Taylor – who has a second home in the Highlands – said the bill for his band B property will rise from £1,270 to £4,000 with the premium. Those in the highest band will now have to pay around £12,000 a year.
Second homes in the Highlands face a 200 per cent council tax premium (Photo: iStockphoto/Getty)“We’re not talking about super wealthy people,” said Taylor. “The average age of people in our group is around 75 or 76. A lot are surviving on basic pensions.”
“Some left the Highlands for work and are now returning, some have inherited properties, others have taken on derelict properties or self-built,” he added.
Taylor said many of the properties are “unwanted by locals”, adding: “The difficulty is some may now be trapped in properties that are only useful as second homes in a market that has been closed off to this type of investment.”
‘You can afford to pay your fair share’
The Cut My Tax campaign said the “astronomical” premiums being imposed by councils across England, Scotland and Wales amounted to “legalised larceny”.
But some are convinced it is the right way to deal with the rise of second homes in “hot” property markets where local people are priced out.
Gordon Maloney, Edinburgh chair of the Living Rent tenants’ union, said the new premium was “long overdue” in Scotland’s capital to help bring empty and second homes back into residential use.
The “wealthy few are able to hoard potential permanent homes” as luxuries, said Maloney, before adding: “If you can afford a second home in this city, you can afford to pay your fair share.”
Andrew Dixon, chair of the Fairer Share campaign, also backed the additional charges on second homes, “especially in places where local families are being priced out”.
But he warned that such a move was only tinkering at the edges in a bid to “patchwork-fix a broken council tax system”.
A much wider overhaul of council tax is required, Dixon said – pointing out that the current system across Britain is based on 1991 property values. Poorer households spend a larger share of their income on council tax than wealthier households, he argued.
Fairer Share proposed a flat 0.48 per cent “proportional property tax” on a home’s current value. A group of Labour MPs is pushing Andy Burnham to consider this kind of radical overhaul.
Edinburgh City Council’s Labour leader Jane Meagher, in response to the criticism, said the premium “aims to increase housing availability by encouraging owners to bring properties back into active use as permanent homes”.
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