The Green Party said its leader, Zack Polanski, had until recently been living on a houseboat in London and may have failed to pay council tax on it. A party spokesperson said Polanski had taken steps to pay any council tax he may be found to owe.
“Zack apologises sincerely for the unintentional mistake,” the spokesperson said, adding: “Until relatively recently, Zack was living on a houseboat, which came with its own unique practical circumstances and considerations.” The boat was moored at a marina in Hackney.
The issue surfaced after questions last week from The Times over whether Polanski had paid council tax for the boat for the past three years. The newspaper said it had seen an advertisement to sell the boat in which Polanski’s partner wrote, “We are moving house and so will sadly be leaving the gorgeous community behind.”
The Times also reported that the Green Party said Polanski lived in a rented room at a different London address where council tax was included in his rent, and that he only stayed on the boat “occasionally.” But the paper said Polanski and his partner appear in recent years to have stayed on a narrowboat at a marina, and a local laundrette said it had often done their laundry from 2023 to 2025.
Polanski used a nearby building as a postal address along with several other individuals thought to have boats in the marina, and the Mail reported that he had been registered to vote there. That has left the dispute focused on one question: whether the houseboat was his sole or main residence.
Tax lawyer Dan Neidle said a boat is liable for council tax when used as a person’s “sole or main residence.” In a post this week on his Tax Policy Associates website, he said that if the houseboat was Polanski’s main residence, then Polanski and his partner should have paid council tax there. The Green Party spokesperson also said: “For security reasons, we do not comment publicly on Zack’s address.”
The party’s response suggests it is trying to close down the controversy before it spreads further, but the facts now on the record point in a different direction. If Polanski was mainly living on the houseboat, the council tax question is not a technicality; it goes to whether the payment was missed for years, and whether the party leader now has to account for a private arrangement that became a public issue this week.
