Council to consider a plan that could see it buy empty homes to repair

Shropshire Council’s Cabinet are being asked to approve the council’s draft Empty Homes Strategy for public consultation, when it meets next week.

The draft Empty Homes Strategy highlights the reasons why homes become empty and sets out how the council will work with empty home owners to bring properties back into use.

The draft strategy also outlines what enforcement powers the council can use if owners do not engage and the property is causing a nuisance to neighbours.

Rob Gittins, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member responsible for built housing, said: “Empty homes are a wasted resource and often blight our communities, especially in a council area such as Shropshire where there is such high demand for housing.

“An important objective of our Housing Strategy is to make the best use of existing assets, through bringing empty homes and dwellings back into use as residential accommodation to meet housing need and demand.

“Our draft Empty Homes Strategy seeks to provide an overview of the numbers of empty homes in Shropshire, focuses on why homes can become empty, and how important it is that they are brought back into use.

“Although it’s not statutory requirement for a council to have an empty homes strategy, we know that tackling empty dwellings improves neighbourhoods, reduces nuisance, vandalism, and anti-social behaviour, and can improve the health and wellbeing of our communities.

“The draft strategy therefore sets out how the council will seek to reduce the number of empty homes, whilst promoting options for bringing empty homes and other properties back into use as residential accommodation.

“We plan to work together to identify empty homes so owners can be given advice and assistance to sell, lease or rent their dwelling. We also want to ensure that enforcement action should happen only as a last resort.”

The draft strategy sets out a number of objectives.

The first is to 'maintain relevant, accurate and current information relating to empty homes in the area – using council tax data and other information the council will maintain a database of dwellings that have been empty for over six months: this will include the reasons for it being empty'.

The council says it wants to 'bring empty homes back into use through encouragement, advice, and assistance,' but will also 'explore opportunities to bring empty homes back into use through ‘purchase and repair’ to deliver affordable housing', and through establishing a social lettings agency to provide a management service for homes.

The authority said that 'where all other negotiation has failed', it will consider options for taking the appropriate enforcement action to ensure empty homes are brought back into use.

If the matter is approved by the cabinet an eight-week public consultation period will take place.