To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement on the application of the community charge to beach huts without a postal address, road access or connecting services.

The standard community charge is payable by the freehold owner or lessee of a domestic property which is no person's sole or main residence. The Local Government Finance Act 1988 defines a building as domestic property if it is used wholly for the purposes of living accommodation. Whether or not a beach hut constitutes living accommodation will be a matter for the community charges registration officer to establish in the light of the facts of the case. It would be open to an individual to appeal against a registration officer's determination to a valuation and community charge tribunal.