Council tax shall be payable in respect of any dwelling which is not an exempt dwelling.
In this Chapter—
"chargeable dwelling" means any dwelling in respect of which council tax is payable;
"exempt dwelling" means any dwelling of a class prescribed by an order made by the Secretary of State.
For the purposes of subsection (2) above, a class of dwellings may be prescribed by reference to such factors as the Secretary of State sees fit.
Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (3) above, a class of dwellings may be prescribed by reference to one or more of the following factors—
the physical characteristics of dwellings;
the fact that dwellings are unoccupied or are occupied for prescribed purposes or are occupied or owned by persons of prescribed descriptions.