Landlords face crackdown on derelict homes

Aug 26 2008 by Dave Black, The Journal

LANDLORDS have been warned they could have their property seized under new moves to cut empty homes.

Council bosses say they are prepared to use compulsory purchase powers and enforcement action to ensure that long-term vacant properties are brought back into use to help ease a growing housing shortage.

Buying up empty and derelict houses and flats is seen as a last resort, but local authorities say they are planning to get tough to tackle the neighbourhood blight caused by private- sector properties left to go to rack and ruin.

The new moves come eight months after national charity the Empty Homes Agency (EHA) criticised councils in the North East for not using new powers to tackle the problem – in the face of research showing that 22,000 properties in the region are empty for six months or more.

The EHA said local authorities should be making more use of Empty Dwelling Management Orders (EDMOs) to force absent property owners to house those in need. Chief executive David Ireland said only 10 such orders had been put in place across the UK.

Research carried out last year by the Halifax showed that Castle Morpeth, Newcastle, Gateshead and Copeland in Cumbria were among the worst-affected areas in the region for empty properties.

In April last year the 1,056 vacant homes in Castle Morpeth equated to almost 5% of its total housing stock. Now Castle Morpeth Council has adopted a new draft strategy to tackle the problem. A report to councillors last week said the strategy will concentrate on the 325 properties in the borough which have stood empty for more than six months.

It includes setting up an empty property database, prioritising which houses and flats require urgent action and giving advice and support to private landlords on repairs, finding prospective tenants and selling empty properties.

However, the council will also use EDMOs, enforcement action and compulsory purchase powers, if necessary, where persuasion fails to work.

Blyth Valley councillors also recently called for private landlords who fail to respond to council correspondence to have their empty properties seized.

Yesterday Coun Glen Sanderson, Castle Morpeth’s executive member for communities, said: “Using compulsory purchase and enforcement action would be very much a last resort. However, the way some landlords and owners have allowed their property to effectively fall down, and cause great annoyance to local people, will not be tolerated any longer.

“We would like to offer more carrot than stick but are prepared to get tough. We are working hard to regenerate our communities, but empty property is a blight on neighbourhoods and is thwarting our efforts.”

A report to the council’s scrutiny committee last week said that although bringing empty homes back into use was not the whole answer to the current housing crisis, local authorities cannot ignore the potential. “We need to ensure that owners are both encouraged and, where appropriate, required to unlock the potential of this wasted resource.”