HOMELESSNESS

Around 84,000 family units and individuals are officially designated homeless in England, while countless others on low incomes struggle to find a place of their own. Yet at the latest count, England had 729,770 empty homes, and the picture is not dissimilar in other parts of the United Kingdom. Nor are the 'empties' restricted to run-down towns in the north of England: 183,000 are in London and the South East, the region where demand is highest and shortage of housing for key workers has reached crisis levels. This paradox will be highlighted during national Empty Homes Week when local authorities will be hosting a range of initiatives aimed at getting uninhabited properties back into use.

The Government is already attacking the empty homes problem: in February Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott set out plans for compulsory leasing powers to allow local authorities to take over and lease out privately owned properties that are left empty. In addition, from next April, authorities will no longer have to offer a 50% discount on council tax to those whose property is empty for more than six months.

Empty homes can also be bad news for neighbours and can depress property prices. The Empty Homes Agency claims a long-term vacant property next door can knock 10% off the value of your own property, and encourages people to report such properties to their local authority. Estate agent Jeremy Leaf, housing spokesman for the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, says: "It can certainly have a detrimental effect on neighbouring properties if it is empty long term; it may become a haven for drug dealing or vermin, and there may be structural implications such as damp, which can spread next door."

So why are so many properties empty? Some are between tenants, and some are being sold. It is the longer-term empties which are the cause of concern. Rosie May, of the Empty Homes Agency, explains, "There are people who have been left a property and don't know what to do with it, and there are others who own a property which needs refurbishment, but they can't afford it." Or there are owners in prison, in hospital, caring for relatives or working abroad. "We came across a case in Eastbourne," says May, "where a guy had kept a house empty because his wife had left 10 years earlier and he was still hoping she would come back."

Then, of course, there are the private landlords who hold property as investments, 'landbanking', May says, and choose to keep it empty. It may seem strange that anybody would choose to keep a property empty rather than have a tenant paying rent, but with prices rising as quickly as they have in the past few years, capital returns have dwarfed rental income in many cases. Leaf says there may be various reasons for keeping a property empty: "There are investment companies who don't want to spend the money on refurbishing, and there are people who own property but don't want to sell because that would crystallise a gain or a loss."

As house prices level off, keeping property empty for speculative reasons looks a much less attractive option, since owners will have to set little or no return against depreciation, maintenance and expenses such as council tax. But Leaf believes some owners of empty properties will still be reluctant to sell in the expectation of long-term gains. The Empty Homes Agency is campaigning for local authorities to take a much more pro-active stance in bringing empty, privately-owned properties back into use. Authorities are encouraged to develop a database of properties kept empty, and to offer refurbishment grants, advice on letting and council leases to owners, to persuade them to let their property.

If private landlords don't respond, compulsory leasing will provide a more powerful weapon in the local authorities' armoury. One that has already taken more radical steps is Coventry City Council. Dean Cooper, the city's Empty Homes Officer, says he has 300 long-term empty properties on his books, and around half the owners have failed to respond to queries about their property, or to 'carrots' such as a council refurbish-and-lease scheme. In the past 12 months, the council prosecuted two owners who failed to carry out renovations ordered by its environmental health department. "It sends out a signal that we mean business," says Cooper.

The council is also prepared to issue compulsory purchase orders. In the last financial year, some 120 empty properties were brought back into use through a combination of stick and carrot, while three were demolished. Second homes which are kept empty for much of the year are also an issue. In statistics compiled by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, the authority which has the greatest proportion of 'empty homes' in England (more than 12%) is South Hams in Devon, incorporating Salcombe and Dartmouth. (They are recorded as 'empty' because owners pay only 50% council tax if the property is occupied for less than six months.)

Richard Younge, leader of South Hams District Council, says, "Across South Hams, 11% of all properties are second homes, and in East Portlemouth, it is approaching 60%. This has a very bad effect: house prices here are around 10 times the average wage, and last year we had to put 20 families into B&Bs for the first time." Younge says abolishing the council tax discount for second homes could raise an extra £2.2 million. He would like to spend this on extra housing, but the authority may not be allowed to keep the money. And he has little hope that the increase in council tax will discourage second-home owners, "If you can afford to pay £300,000 for a second home, you are not going to worry about an extra £800." (Source: The Observer)

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