COUNCIL tax bills could be quadrupled in Caerphilly for owners of homes left empty for a year or more.

There are 1,008 so-called long-term empty homes across the county borough, including 131 that have stood empty for a decade or longer.

Shayne Cook, Caerphilly Council’s cabinet member for housing, said the local authority had made “great headway” in tackling the issue of empty homes, returning 104 properties into use last year.

Senior councillors hope that hiking council tax bills, by adding a premium of up to 300 per cent on the normal rate, will be another way of encouraging owners not to sit on properties and leave them uninhabited.