It’s time to tackle our empty shops and houses
Number of rundown properties is causing concern:
HIGH numbers of empty shops and homes in town centres are causing concern.
That’s the message from a council report which has revealed how almost half (49%) of the 1,233 empty private sector residential properties in the county borough are located in and around the town centre areas of Bridgend, Porthcawl and Maesteg.
As of March 6 there were also approximately 309 empty commercial properties across the county borough, with 38% of these in and around Bridgend town centre.
The report states that despite the availability of various grants and loans via the council to help landlords regenerate properties and a number of successes, the percentage of properties being brought back into use remains stubbornly low.
As a result a new empty property working group has been formed within the council to tackle the problem.
“The working group will focus on properties that have been empty for two years or longer as these are often the properties that are more problematic and less likely to be those properties waiting to be sold or rented,” said Andrew Jolley, corporate director for operational and partnership services, in the report which will be presented to councillors for scrutiny today.
“A desktop evaluation, using the information already held by services within the authority, will be undertaken in order to determine the top 10 priority properties in the county borough.
“The working group will then determine the actions that can be taken to work towards bringing the top 10 priority properties back into use.
“The desktop evaluation will consider factors such as: the length of time empty; if the property is a nuisance; if complaints have been received; if the property is in an area of high housing need; if there is debt owed to the authority; if the property is in disrepair; if the property is detrimental to the local community; and if the property is in the town centre or its periphery.
The report states that as of December 20, 2017, there were 1,233 private sector residential properties empty for six months or longer, which is 2% of the total 62,462 homes in the county borough.
A total of 31% of these properties has been empty for two years or more.
In 2015/16 Bridgend was ranked 16th out of the 22 Welsh local authorities for the number of empty homes brought back into use, but it dropped to 18th in 2016/17 with 2.2% of empty properties being brought back into use as a result of direct action by the authority.
The report states: “In comparison, 42.4% was achieved by Neath Port Talbot and 0.8% by Cardiff.
“Overall in Wales, 8.8% of empty properties were returned to occupation through direct action by local authorities in 201617.
“There has been some inconsistency between local authorities in the reporting of this measure, where correspondence with the owner that does not result in engagement with the authority, has still been counted as direct action.”
It also states there has been a decline in responses from landlords who are contacted by Bridgend council about empty properties.