PEOPLE in the Malvern Hills district who are still homeless as a result of last year’s devastating summer floods will soon hear whether they will get more financial help.

Malvern Hills District Council executive committee, which meets on Tuesday, August 26, is to discuss whether to extend council tax exemptions for those people still living in rented accommodation, caravans, with family and friends or on the top floors of their flooded homes.

In the aftermath of the 2007 floods, local authorities were able to offer up to 100 per cent council tax exemptions to those displaced households but this was only for one year.

In June the Department for Communities and Local Government wrote to affected councils asking them to consider extending the exemption period until the end of the financial year in March 2009.

Floods recovery minister John Healey did not think it was fair that people displaced by the floods should pay council tax on homes they could not occupy.

There are currently nearly 60 in the Malvern Hills District that have been allowed the 100 per cent council tax exemption by the district council. This is expected to drop to 19 by the end of March 2009.

The council’s acting head of finance Andy Baldwin said: “The cost of providing 100 per cent exemption for these properties is estimated to be £32,000 for the remainder of the financial year.

“We are still awaiting final clarification from the Department for Communities and Local Government on whether any grant to be paid over will meet the full costs of the exemptions, or whether some costs would need to be met from the council’s collection fund.”

Mr Baldwin said that a number of the families displaced were unable to return to their properties because they have no insurance to cover repairs and extending the council tax exemption would just alleviate hardship to those least able to pay.