Councillor M Stead to Move
At present wholly student occupied properties do not have council tax or business rates applied to them.
Clearly students should not be expected to pay council tax.
However, as a council we lose £8,442,198 council tax income from 5294 properties.
The government allowing
the continuing unchecked growth of universities is unsustainable
and in many instances is placing unfunded additional burdens on
local Council Taxpayers.
This council therefore calls on the government in consultation with local communities to effectively regulate the growth of universities and to fund the lost income from student accommodation which currently costs Durham County Council and other local authorities with Universities huge amounts of money or come up with an alternative which protects students and funds local authorities.
Minutes:
The chair informed Council that there was one Motion for consideration.
Councillor M Stead informed Council that the Motion was due to be moved at Council in January and included an amendment put forward by the Labour Group at that time. Given that the Leader of the Council had spoken to the Secretary of State and this was to be followed up with a letter from the Deputy Leader of the Council to government, Councillor Stead informed Council that he wished to withdraw his Motion.