We received a petition asking:
“We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to help landlords to reduce the number of empty homes in the UK, which is rising sharply at a time when demand for social housing is growing ever more acute.”
Details of Petition:
“We suggest three measures that would help to reduce empty homes: VAT - a cut in VAT on repairs and maintenance to 5 per cent, to make it more attractive for owners to invest in an empty home, or for a potential buyer to make an offer Grant – use cash from existing Homes and Communities Agency budget for social landlords to buy and repair long-term empty properties Guidance – clearer advice from the government to help councils use Empty Dwelling Management Orders.”
· Read the petition
· Petitions homepage
Read the Government’s response
The Government agrees that bringing empty homes back into use provides much-needed housing and can reduce the need to develop new homes on urban fringes and in the countryside, although areas with high concentrations of empty homes often do not correspond with areas of high housing need.
We recognise that as homes continue to remain empty, they become increasingly difficult to bring back into use as they fall further into a state of disrepair. This can have disastrous consequences for the streets where these properties are located. In order to tackle such problems, the Government has already reduced VAT on the installation of energy saving materials such as draught insulation and from 1 January 2008 the rate of VAT applied to the renovation and alteration of homes that have been unoccupied for between two and three years was reduced to 5%.
In 2008/09, £200m was made available within the HCA’s Affordable Housing Programme for the purchase of unsold stock from developers. The scheme has been very successful and the £200m figure was not capped. Allocations of £350m have been made to the end of March for the purchase of some 9,600 units. Whilst this initiative was for 2008/09, the HCA will continue to fund the purchase of stock where it represents good value for money.
However, this type of approach is not always appropriate as a way of dealing with long-term empty properties in need of repair. Very often it is more expensive to refurbish homes to the standard we expect than to build them from scratch. Homes also have to be of the right type and size and in the right place. The empty homes figures assume that the empty homes are where the need lies, which is not necessarily the case.
The Government believes that local authorities have a key role to play in identifying empty properties in their areas and in developing strategies to bring them back into effective use. The overall number of empty properties has actually fallen by 9% since 1997 showing that the majority of local authorities have been successful in working to bring empty properties back into use.
Where it is clear that owners are not prepared to co-operate with efforts to get their property occupied through agreement, the Government thinks it is right that local authorities should have enforcement powers to deal with them. Local authorities already have a range of powers to deal with empty properties, including compulsory purchase and enforced sale. The Government added to these powers in the Housing Act 2004 by introducing a new power for local authorities to make Empty Dwelling Management Orders (EDMOs) in respect of long-term empty homes without forcing a change of ownership.
Councils are encouraged to make effective use of these powers and so it is important that they have access to the appropriate tools, including practical guidance, in order to do so. We supported the independent Empty Homes Agency’s new guidance on Empty Dwelling Management Orders, which was launched on 10 March. The guidance is internet based and interactive and takes local authorities through the EDMO process step by step. Housing Minister, Margaret Beckett provided a foreword for the guidance. In addition, Iain Wright, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at Communities and Local Government hosted an Empty Homes Seminar on 23 April for a number of local authorities to provide an opportunity to discuss the obstacles facing authorities in dealing with empty homes and to share examples of best practice.
delicious
digg
facebook
