Lesley Griffiths has lauded the Welsh Government’s announcement of an extra £5million alongside a range of measures to enable Local Authorities to bring empty homes into use. The Assembly Member for Wrexham also commented that ‘standing by’ while homes lie empty would be ‘wrong’ in the current climate.
The comments follow an announcement by Huw Lewis, Minister for Housing, Regeneration and Heritage which detailed extra investment in the ‘Houses to Homes’ scheme and how Welsh Government is to further assist Local Authorities to bring more empty homes into use as social housing, for private rent or sale.
The Houses into Homes scheme is one of a number of routes Local Authorities can seek to increase housing supply by bringing empty homes into use. Other measures being looked at include varying rates of council tax in relation to second homes and empty properties, alongside more severe approaches such as enforced sales, empty dwelling management orders and compulsory purchase orders.
Official figures for 2010-11 empty private sector properties at 21,970. Action by Local Authorities in partnership with the Welsh Government brought nearly 1000 of these back into use last year alone. The Welsh Government are looking to increase this number using schemes such as ‘Housing to Homes’.
Commenting, Lesley Griffiths AM said:
“I am pleased to see the Welsh Labour Government leading the way with this policy.
“Long-term empty properties cause a social and environmental blight on communities, and prevent families from finding a home. This extra £5million will help to tackle this.
“The Welsh Government is rightly taking strong yet creative action on this issue. Currently thousands of properties lie unused and thousands of families require homes. Standing by and allowing this to continue would be simply wrong.
“However, the aim is not to punish landlords who feel unable to renovate properties, but to help them find the resources to do so. The ‘ House to Homes’ scheme provides this cheaply and easily.”
