In the EHA we will of course welcome any such fall - every house and flat brought back into use is a home for somebody, increased council tax revenue for local authorities and another eyesore and blight on a community rehabilitated.
However, we are more concerned to see what movement there has been in the hard core of 250,000 homes across England that have been empty for a year or more. These are the properties that create the real problem for all of us - magnets for petty crime, anti-social behaviour and vandalism. Much worse, they are also too often a location for drug and substance abuse and other activities deliberately undertaken away from the public eye.
I am fearful that little, if any, improvement will occur here. More pressure needs to be put on those who own or control these houses, along with those who are in a position to help these owners, influence them and force them to bring these houses back to life.
Central to this process are the local authorities and their development of Empty Property Strategies (EPSs). There are many examples of excellent corporate strategies and hard-working empty property officers across the country from Cornwall to Cumbria. However, out of 350 or so local authorities, only about 200 have a declared and public empty property strategy. This is, in the opinion of the Empty Homes Agency, simply not good enough. With the launch of a new National Lottery-funded project, Community Action on Empty Homes, we will be recruiting a broad range of activists and campaigners across the housing, homelessness, environmental, church, civic societies and urban regeneration networks to help us get this message across to reluctant or recalcitrant councils.
Now is not really the time or place to start asking how many of the 200 with empty property strategies are really effective, truly corporate in nature and helping to meet the needs of their area - or whether they have simply enabled a tick to go in a DETR box. Suffice to say at this time to those councils who have been "box ticking", you probably know who you are, but do not worry, the Agency also has a fairly good idea as well!
To all local authorities out there, tell us what you are doing and we will celebrate your successes and achievements, but do nothing and expect to have to answer not to a pressure group working out of a small office in London, but to your local residents, your local papers and your local electorate.
Empty homes and the wider issue of making best use of existing resources is of interest to the public. The initial support we are receiving for Community Action tells us this.
As the new chief executive, people want to know what my vision is for the agency - it is to get the message across to the public as much as it is about getting it across to housing professionals. To some extent that battle has been won. We now need to get Joe and Josephine Public to tell those in a position to increase the re-use of empty homes at local and national levels that this is what they, we, the public, want.
When characters in Coronation Street start talking about the scandal of homes standing empty, we know there is a problem to be tackled.
The solutions will of course vary across the country the EHA knows this and applauds the inventiveness and ingenuity of the empty property officers throughout England - but councils must take a lead in developing what is needed in their areas. Through Community Action on Empty Homes, the Empty Homes Agency will demand it, but more importantly so will your local residents.
To answer the original question, the last thing we actually want is homes standing empty in our communities today.
Source
Housing Today
Postscript
Ashley Horsey is chief executive of the Empty Homes Agency
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