THE BAD
IBM Greenock - abandoned
who wants to take over the space in question?
Recent history says that Scotland has the opposite problem. There are areas that have everything a new industrial business would need: an educated population, experienced workforce and good transport links and communications..
Across the country there are businesses which want to invest in an area but can’t find the land they need. While properties sit unused and vacant, businesses can’t find office space, commercial real estate, or property they can purchase.
There are plenty of local start- ups who need office space, or production space, and who just can’t find a place they can afford.
In the same way that punitive disuse rates would encourage landowners to break their lease, punitive disuse rates will encourage them to find a rental price that
34 July 2015
Photo: Kieran Hamilton
businesses can afford. Then the property taxes are taxed as a percentage of the rental income, meaning that landowners aren’t punished for working out a deal with local businesses which sees economic activity.
But what if a landowner simply can’t find anyone who wants to rent their property? Someone shouldn’t go bankrupt in order to pay their taxes. You can’t squeeze blood from stone, and no one likes the idea of locking folks up because the economy is volatile. Failure to pay property taxes should never be a criminal offence. There are far beter ways of dealing with property that a landowner can’t afford to keep up and can’t find a renter for.
In the US, we have a system called liens that deal with this problem quite well. If you’re a property owner, and you can’t pay your property taxes, or you can’t afford to keep up your property, and it’s falling down, or has broken windows, then your property will have a lien placed upon it until the property is repaired, or the taxes are paid, or both.
Tere are plenty of local start-ups who need office space, or production space, and who just can’t find a place they can afford.
If the landowner wishes to sell the property, the liens have to be paid before the landowner receives payment for the property. If the liens reach a certain level compared to the value of the property, then the local council should have the right to immediately assume ownership of the property, liens being cancelled in
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