This also ignores the amount of money "lost" to the Council as people flipped and do not pay any tax at all on their property. This theoretical increase in revenue would be used to build affordable housing for locals - to date so much money has been "lost" that no affordable housing has been built or planned. If the WA or GCC brought in a ruling that any houses flipping to business rates after 2015 without due diligence from the Council are effectively avoiding the increase in second home council tax and therefore are not allowed to flip and have to repay any rebates and back council tax. If they do allow business rates on the property then the Council should put a "property lien" to make sure that the 18% or 28% business tax when the property is sold is partially re-couped from the government and fed into the local Council. Simples.