Issue - meetings

Reason for Report

To propose a new Empty Homes Strategy for Lincoln 2017-2022 to deliver the Vision 2020 and Housing Strategy objectives.

Decision

That the Executive:

(1)       Adopts the Empty Homes Strategy, as amended and published with the supplement to the agenda for this meeting, with a review of the action plan to be reported to the Executive after 18 months.

(2)       Notes that there will be additional financial resources, including a capital fund, needed for Compulsory Purchase Orders and Empty Dwelling Management Orders which will be brought back to the Executive on a case by case basis.

Alternative Options Considered and Rejected

None.

Reasons for Decision

The Empty Homes Strategy had been considered by the Policy Scrutiny Committee on 20 March 2018 and an extract from the draft minutes of that meeting was circulated. A revised version of the report and Empty Homes Strategy had been published to take into account comments raised at that meeting.

The new Empty Homes Strategy proposed a change in the focus of the Private Housing Team to target empty home owners much earlier, from six months empty, and to prioritise long term empty homes in the Sincil Bank area. The Strategy included ambitious actions to work across Council teams and with strategic partners to build a range of voluntary and enforcement solutions to bring many more homes back into use.

It was reported that, as of 1 January 2018, there was 419 long term empty privately owned homes in the city. 104 of these properties had been empty for two years or more. On 30 September 2017 there were 1681 households on the City of Lincoln Council housing register, with 164 of these being in Band 1 meaning that they were homeless or unable to live in the housing they had. Long term empty homes had a negative impact on communities, causing a blight to the street scene and attracting antisocial behaviour. Bringing empty homes back into use offered income opportunities to the Council, both through receipt of New Homes Bonus and the potential to acquire and develop properties for resale or letting.

The table at paragraph 3.1 provided an overview of the number of empty homes in Lincoln brought back to use through local authority intervention between 2010/11 and 2016/17, with advice being the mean reasoning as to why they had been brought back to use.

The Empty Homes Strategy identified the following main aims:

·         the Council would do all within its means to identify and return to use long term empty homes;

·         no residential property shall be empty longer than two years without a clear and defined plan to return it to use;

·         the Could would reduce the impact of empty homes on their way to re-occupation;

·         there would be effective communication with individuals and groups affected by long term empty homes.

In discussing the reasoning behind homes being empty, it was noted that there were numerous circumstances as to why homes were unoccupied in the city. A working group considered  ...  view the full minutes text for item 149