Council is bidding to bring empty homes back to life
year.
To meet their targets, council bosses will be using a mixture of prevention, intervention and enforcement.
This includes speeding up the process of rehousing tenants, providing support and advice to the private rented sector and strengthening the Private Landlords Accreditation Scheme.
The council will also work alongside other housing providers to look at properties they could support alongside general advice and signposting.
Supporting homeowners with financial assistance to carry out repairs to bring properties up to a lettable or re-sale standard – up to £5,000 is available per property depending on the length of time the property has been empty.
A homeowner would lease their property to the council, and once in council control, repairs are carried out with this cost (minus fees) recouped via the letting of the property over an agreed period.
The council would buy a property outright when financially viable to do so.
– This is available to homeless applicants to access accommodation in the private rented sector – a bond of £750 would be secured on behalf of the tenant to act as a deposit.
This could range from enforced sales and compulsory purchase orders to empty dwelling management orders.
The report to the cabinet goes on to say: “Not all empty properties cause a problem and a percentage are required to allow the housing market to function.
“However, the council recognises that if left empty, at some point a short-term empty home can become a long-term problematic empty home.