MAJOR
PROBLEM
A major problem in today's society is
the increasing number of nomadic tenants living
in properties leased by private landlords. Some
of these do a bunk and leave their junk behind
them.
This can, quite often, be several skips
full and it is only when their rubbish is removed
that the full scale of damage is revealed.
If
Derby Homes was to clean up and repair all its
boarded-up properties, we would all probably have
to pay two or three times the amount of council
tax we pay today.
Private landlords have to find
this money out of their own pokets. If the
goverment has money spare, why not give it to
private landlords by way of grants? L
V Brown |
START WITH PRESCOTT
May I suggest that they start by grabbing the
un-needed homes of all the politicians who have
spent years fighting each other for luxurious
grace and favour homes they do not need, but
which enable them to rent out their own
properties for high rewards and in Prescott's
case, tax free.
Start with Prescott, Beckett and
Hoon. Unused politician's second homes in inner
London, the cost of which are paid by us as
essential London accommodation but in many cases
are not used because they have other
arrangements, again, like Prescott and the
Clapham union flat. Also that they pay their own
security costs when on free holidays, etc. the
list is endless. Ken |
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EMPTY HOMES
 New powers for councils to take
over empty properties owned by private landlords should
help the thousands of people in Derby waiting for homes.
There are 3,743 homes in the city standing empty, enough
to almost halve the size of the city's housing waiting
list. Of this number, 3,012 are owned by private
landlords.
The remainder are owned by the city council (250),
housing associations (404) and other private bodies (77).
The Government plans to tackle the problem through Empty
Dwelling Management Orders which will enable councils to
take over temporary management of longer-term unoccupied
houses and flats so they can be let out.
In Derby, there are 1,414 houses which have been empty
for six months of longer. The orders, which are included
in the Housing Act 2004 and are likely to come into force
later in 2005, would only be used if owners were not
willing to co-operate or show a valid reason why the
property should remain empty.
Properties would still be officially owned by the
landlords and could revert back to their owners' control
on an agreed date, or sooner if the owner required, but
could not remain empty. Higher concentrations of empty
properties are mainly found in inner-city areas like
Hartington Street. In the street, out of about 50
properties, seven are empty.
In recent years, Hartington Street has earned itself
something of a bad reputation with reported problems of
drugs and anti-social behaviour. Residents believe that
some of the blame rests on the empty properties.
According to them, one house had been used as a
"crack den" by drug addicts until police raided
it, while another has been empty for almost five years.
(Source: Derby Evening Telegraph)
Bereaved families could have the homes of
dead relatives seized under new laws. Local councils will
be able to take control of inherited homes if they are
left vacant for more than six months. After that time the
beneficiaries of a will risk seeing the house that has
been left to them taken over and rented out as social
housing.
The new rules state that those who leave a house or flat
empty for six months risk losing control of it to the
local council, which will have power to break in, alter
or refurbish it, and let it out to tenants of the
authority’s choice. The greatest impact is likely to
fall on bereaved families.
Although actual ownership will remain with the family,
the new law means that the home of a relative who has
died may be taken over by the council just six months
after the will has been put into effect. The right for
councils to impose 'Empty Dwelling Management Orders' was
included in a 2004 Housing Act pushed through by Deputy
Prime Minister John Prescott.
When the law was pushed through Parliament, it was said
that target homes would be in crime-affected streets in
inner cities. However, the details now made public show
that the orders will apply to any home. The guidance on
the new powers said: "The property does not have to
be run down or uninhabitable. The fact it has not been
lived in for more than six months may be enough to allow
an EDMO to be made."
Exceptions cover second and holiday homes and homes of
those working 'temporarily' away. An EDMO can last for
seven years, but owners can apply to get their house back
earlier. No home can be seized if its owner can show it
is 'genuinely' on the market. The seizure of homes must
also be approved by a Residential Property Tribunal.
These are the panels that have until now been confined to
settling disputes between private landlords and tenants.
(Source: Mail on Sunday, Jun/06)
There is no housing shortage. It is just a
mismanaged resource. The fact that John Prescott is
concreting over the whole of south-east England, and
Derby is building on every piece of available land just
goes to show how badly officialdom can get its facts
wrong and panic people into accepting mistaken policies.
They say that there is a need for large family homes, but
there are numerous large family homes, such as Hartington
Street, which have been sub-divided into multi-occupancy.
Meanwhile, care in the community sees lone people living
in inappropriately large accommodation. The social
services fuel bill for this can only continue to grow and
this waste of the housing resource only adds to a problem
which demonstrably is not "the" problem at all.
The three-storey houses being built are so small that the
staircases take up an excessive amount of the floor area,
detached houses are built so close together they might as
well be terraced and their closeness replicates, in
horizontal form, the tower blocks of previous years. Graham
Buckler
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