Topic
Topic ID 6323
14/12/2011 by Sprouts
Empty Houses
Just been watching the 'Great British Property Scandal' on Channel 4OD and gone to the presenter's website
http://cache.channel4.com/programmes/the-great-british-property-scandal/articles/news/
It says there are 566 long term empty houses in the area and nearly 2400 on the councils waiting list. But where are all these empty houses? The only one I have ever seen is just outside Hertford Heath on the way to Hoddesdon...a right mess it looks too.
Replies
Reply ID 85125
15/12/2011 by tiger.1000
Perhaps new properties that are currently unsold may fall into that category ?
Reply ID 85128
15/12/2011 by Ewoowar
It would be interesting to know how effective this strategy is.
Reply ID 85155
16/12/2011 by wingcomm
If there are any unused homes in east herts they should be sold to the private sector and the money used to reduce council tax. I don't see why when i have to pay to provide for my kids by buying thm a nice home, that i should have to subsidise other people what cant afford one.
Reply ID 85156
16/12/2011 by codek2
i didnt see the program, but i thought that a proportion of the empty homes are already in the private sector. the problem is that either they are not used, and just mothballed ( and the argument is that should an owner have the right to do this or not? ) or that the owner is unknown or uncontactable. In the latter case there are compulsory purchase mechanisms to reclaim the property for the public good, but I imagine this process is horrendously expensive.
Reply ID 85157
16/12/2011 by Steve
According to Council Tax data as at 1/4/09, there were 133 private homes in Hertford that had been empty for more than six months. Of these, 66 had been empty for more than a year and 31 more than two years. Three had been empty for more than 10 years.
quote:
Originally posted by wingcomm
If there are any unused homes in east herts they should be sold to the private sector and the money used to reduce council tax.
Unless I'm mistaken, public sector housing stock was sold off years ago, either to tenants or housing associations.
Reply ID 85158
16/12/2011 by codek2
ah ok, so it's irrelevantly low numbers in east herts then, fair enough!
7 replies