Members of Bradford Council last night agreed to changes in council tax benefit and current council tax exemptions on empty properties and second homes.

The Labour-controlled executive had put forward both sets of alterations, which come as a result of national changes made by the Government.

The plans relating to council tax benefit involve reducing the maximum council tax benefit for working age adults from April.

Pensioners will be protected from the cuts, but 34,000 claimants face having to pay up to 25 per cent more. It comes amid cuts of ten per cent to the amount the authority receives from the Government in council tax support, around £5 million.

Meanwhile, the changes to the council tax exemptions and discounts currently allowed on empty properties and second homes will see more than £2 million extra a year come in to the authority.

They include ending the ten per cent discount on holiday homes and the exemption on vacant properties repossessed by the mortgagee; reducing the exemption for uninhabitable properties from 12 months to one month, and for unfurnished properties from six months to one month; and introducing an extra 50 per cent council tax charge on properties that have been empty for more than two years.

Both Labour proposals were challenged by the Tories when it came to empty properties and second homes, and the Liberal Democrats on the issue of council tax benefit.

But the executive recommendations were eventually voted through.

Conservative Councillor Simon Cooke, deputy group leader, called for the one-month exemption for uninhabitable and unfurnished properties to be extended to three months – a more realistic timeframe for landlords to turn around a property for a new tenant.

And Councillor Jeanette Sunderland, the LibDem group leader, called for the Council to accept transitional funding being offered in respect of council tax benefit to cushion the impact on low-income families.

However, Council leader, Labour’s Councillor David Green said the transitional funding was only for one year and accused the Government of passing changes it didn’t have the “courage to implement” on to local authorities.

Of the empty and second home changes, he added: “We do believe this strikes the right balance between allowing landlords to prepare their property but also takes into account the financial needs of this Council in delivering services.”