OWNERS of ‘long-term’ empty  houses could be forced to

sell  them under plans being drawn  up by Plymouth

City Council to  bring 234 vacant private properties back

into use.

The council’s ‘trailblazing’ Empty Homes Team is working

with  other departments to draw up  proposals ‘to

force the sale of  privately owned, long term empty

properties’.

 But the authority stressed the  enforcement action

will only  happen in cases where owners  owe the

council money and have  either been ‘unwilling or

unable  to deal with the property and its  associated

problems’.

The action is seen as one solution to problems caused by 

abandoned properties.

A three-year plan will go before  the council’s Cabinet

for approval on July 15.

The Empty Homes Team intends to use ‘a variety of innovative

measures’, in addition  to enforcement ‘to tackle

the  problem of houses lying empty  for years whilst

the city’s low  earners struggle to find affordable

housing’.

These include:

 converting and re-using  empty properties

making the best use of  brownfield sites

supporting regeneration of  deprived neighbourhoods

encouraging more owners to  let their properties.

The Empty Homes Strategy  aims to ‘increase the city’s

supply of decent, energy efficient  and affordable private

homes’.

Cllr Peter Brookshaw, Cabinet  member for Housing and

Safer  Communities, said: “It’s a disgraceful waste to

have so many  homes standing empty for long  periods

of time when affordable  housing is in such short

supply.

“Besides anything else, these  properties are a blight on

their  local neighbourhoods and often  prove a magnet

for anti social  behaviour such as graffiti, fly 

tipping and vandalism.”

During the past five years the  Empty Home Team has

brought  505 houses back into use.

 Between April 2003 and April  2007 the number of

private sector homes left empty for more  than six months

dropped by  1,596.

The team worked on projects  with nine social

landlords  which, with the council, make  up the

Plymouth Empty Homes  Partnership.

This  included persuading owners of long-term empty, and

often run-down, properties to  either renovate or

sell.

The team also took compulsory  purchase action against

owners  who were impossible to trace.

And under its HouseLet  scheme, the team used 62

previously empty homes as good  quality, temporary

accommodation for nearly 350 homeless  families who would

otherwise  have been housed in  bed-and-breakfast

accommodation.

It also works with Devonport  LOTS (Living Over the Shop),

a  project, in partnership with  Sarsen Housing

Association, to  provide flats for rent.

 LOTS is funded by£220,000  from Devonport

Regeneration  Community Partnership,  £102,000 of

Housing Corporation Temporary Social Housing  Grant and

£380,000 from owners of commercial premises.

David Ireland, chief executive of  the charitable Empty

Homes  Agency, said: “Plymouth City  Council has a

fine record of action to tackle the scandal of  empty

property.

“Its strategy of combining prevention, support for owners

and  a willingness to take enforcement action where

necessary  demonstrates good practice in  empty homes

work.”