EMPTY homes could soon become a more serious financial headache for landlords in Bury.

Proposals have been endorsed to increase the council tax premium for vacant properties in the borough to 300 per cent.

Town hall officials estimated that the move will generate an additional £77,000 for the cash-strapped authority's coffers.

In a council report Lisa Kitto, the council's interim director of financial transformation, says that up until the end of March 2019, the premium charged for empty homes, left unfurnished for two years or more, was an additional 50 per cent, on top of the appropriate council tax levy.

Councillors have been told that in November 2018, the Local Government Finance Act allowed for councils to further increase this charge.

This saw Bury Council then increase the premium to 100 per cent, from the start of April 2019, for homes left vacant for two years. But for which had been vacant for five years or more, the premium was upped to 200 per cent, from the start of April 2020.

Ms Kitto says properties, left empty for 10 years or more, will now face a 300 per cent charge on top of the standard council tax bill, from April 2021.

In her report, she added: "The purpose of the pemium is to encourage homes to be brought back into meaningful use and prevent any detrimental impact on a community of having empty and potentially neglected properties within it."

An estimated 48 properties across the borough would be billed at this higher rate, councillors have been told. And a further four sites would qualify under the same criteria during the financial year.

Finance officials believe that, base don current council tax charging rates, and an assumed four per cent uplift, this would generate £77,000 in additional income.

Council housing officials have been focused on reviving empty properties in the borough, including a joint project with Homes England which converted the former Radcliffe Times offices.