(see attached powerpoint presentation)
Minutes:
Paul Benson, Private Sector Officer, gave the following powerpoint presentation:-
Why bring empties back into use?
- Reduce neighbourhood blight
- Help reduce crime and disorder and the fear of crime
- Creating a more sustainable housing market that contributes to strong neighbourhoods
- Maximise income
- Improve decency standards in older homes
- Contribute towards affordable housing
Current Picture
- Empty Homes Agency (January 2009)
783,633 empty dwellings in England
3.5% of all dwellings
- Rotherham position 4,273 (3.88%) dwellings
- Increase from 3.1% in 2007/08
Reason for Increase
- Potential new households choosing to remain with parents/family for longer
- Households in financial difficulty returning to their parents or family
- Lack of available mortgage products leading to reduced sales
Rotherham mid-year picture
- Reduction in the number of empties to 3,811 (3.53%)
Council-owned Public Sector Empties
- Monitored by 2010
Empty Property Strategy, Action Plan and Indicators
- Reasons unable to let
Managed by others e.g. EDS, C&YPS, ECL
Disinvestment e.g. designated for demolition
Decent Homes improvements
Rotherham Asylum Project Team
Property being reviewed by Neighbourhood Investment Services
Community Buildings
Empty Property Working Group
- Consisting of:-
Key Choices – allocation
Community Protection Unit – enforcement
Neighbourhood Investment Services – enabling and delivery
2010 – managing Council-owned properties
Empty Property Policy
- Joint document to tackle both public and private empties
- Provide strategic direction
- Outline the extent of the problem
- Build on previous activity
What if we do not bring properties back into use?
- Adverse effect on CPA rating (H18)
- Failure to meet targets
- Future funding allocations
Resources
- 2009/10
Proactive enforcement team funded (180,000)
Targeting affected areas
Producing the Empty Property Policy
- 2010/11
Financial commitment to support 3 officers (£36,000)
What next?
- Improve performance
- Monthly meetings of the cross-Directorate Empty Property Working Group
- Production of a joint Empty Property Policy to be reported in April, 2010
- Monitor Council-owned voids – agree to re-let, demolish or sell
- Continued pro-active activity within Maltby and Dinnington
- Reactive response to bring problematic long and short term private sector empties back into use
Discussion ensued on the presentation with the following issues highlighted:-
- The Working Group had met once so far; it was the intention to invite RSLs
- There were a number of empty properties in the ownership of RSLs. Work was taking place on identifying whether it was the same couple of landlords who owned them
- Some landlords were offering up their empty properties for the Rent in Advance Scheme
- The Working Group would investigate those properties with exemptions in order to get a true picture of the number of empty properties in the Borough
- Where ownership of a property was not known, Council Tax was contacted. No Council Tax was paid on an empty property for the first 6 months. A representative from the Section would attend the Working Group to ascertain if there was any pressure that could be put upon landlords
- It was the intention to have a draft Policy in place for April, 2010
- A small number of authorities had been successful in using EMOs. The Council’s Legal Team was working with Manchester on their Enforcement and Management criteria. It was felt that the actual number of properties brought back into use with the Legislation was very small
- Some authorities were offering both private landlords and owners grants to bring their property up to standard. This was something the Working Group would consider.
Resolved:- (1) That the presentation be noted.
(2) That the draft Empty Property Policy be submitted to this Panel for consideration.
(3) That the Policy take account of those properties owned by Council Directorates but were not being used.