Richard Rogers calls for severe tax on owners of empty houses | Society | The Guardian

Richard Rogers calls for severe tax on owners of empty houses | Society | The Guardian: "Richard Rogers calls for severe tax on owners of empty houses Architect says measure is required to cut vacancy rates in prime areas of London and support principle of social responsibility"

Richard Rogers has called for a "severe" new tax on empty homes and warned that prime areas of London are emptying because of wealthy buyers leaving homes vacant.

The international architect and urbanist, who advised Tony Blair, Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnson, said taxes should be levied, possibly as soon as six months after a property becomes empty, to reinforce the principle that "owners of buildings have a social responsibility as well as an economic one".

Lord Rogers's comments came in response to the Guardian's expose of The Bishops Avenue "billionaires row" in north London, where a third of the mansions on the most expensive stretch are unused. The architect of the Lloyds building, Millennium Dome and Terminal 5 at Heathrow said he believed this was "a terrible way of looking at buildings" and warned the problem is spreading to other affluent areas.

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