Agenda item

REPORT OF THE SERVICE DIRECTOR – HOUSING AND ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH

This strategy states the objectives North Herts Council (the Council) has set itself so as to endeavour to bring as many long-term vacant homes back into occupation as is practicable.

RESOLVED: That Cabinet:

(1)   Adopted the Empty Homes Strategy 2024-29.

(2)   Noted that although there is no legal requirement for the Council to have an Empty Homes Strategy, there have been several significant Government-focussed documents and papers highlighting their importance, including a House of Commons Briefing Paper stating that each local authority should have such a strategy to help reduce the number of long-tern empty homes in their districts.

REASONS FOR DECISIONS:

(1)   The recommendation and considerations are being made to allow the Council to formerly adopt the 5-year Empty Homes Strategy 2024-29 to allow the Environmental Health service to work directly or with others to identify and deliver the most appropriate intervention programme to allow the Council to aim to bring as many long-term empty homes back into occupation as practicable.

(2)   The strategy allows the Council to state its intention to consider every aspect linked to the housing sector to bring into use as many opportunities as it can to meet the district’s housing needs, without having to rely solely on new build. Whilst the number of long-term empty homes is small, and the number likely to be brought back into occupation will be smaller still, this strategy does address this sector which would otherwise be omitted from the overall resource potentially available to form our housing stock.

(3)   By adopting the strategy and allowing for the development of a culture of greater awareness of vacant homes, allows for homes which become vacant to be highlighted sooner, and so they can be monitored and their owners challenged at an earlier point, thus also contributing to hopefully having more homes available for the residents of the district.

Audio recording – 12 minutes 14 seconds

In the absence of the Chair and Vice Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, the Chair invited Councillor Sean Prendergast to present the referral on this item. Councillor Prendergast advised that there had been discussion around what would be achieved with this strategy to bring empty homes back into use.

Councillor Sean Prendergast, Executive Member of Housing and Environmental Health, presented the report ‘Empty Homes Strategy’ and advised that:

·       He wanted to put on record his thanks to the housing team and to former Councillor Gary Grindal for starting work on this strategy.

·       This strategy played a key part in meeting housing needs and it also fed into the housing strategy.

·       Empty homes were a wasted resource and became neglected.

·       This strategy would address shortages, revitalise communities, stimulate the local economy and promote environmental sustainability.

·       The tracked changes version of the report was the correct version and contained an amendment in section 8.6 to the part time post which should be 0.5 FTE and not 0.15 FTE as stated in the original document.

·       The strategy sought to interact with homeowners before they reached the 2 year empty home stage, to prevent a property moving to being empty long term.

·       The strategy would enable the Council to work with residents to bring empty homes back into use by providing guidance to the owners.

·       Once adopted, the strategy would be actively promoted to the community to advise of the intention of the Council to address empty homes.

·       The Council would be reliant on the community to report empty homes to enable these to be resolved.

·       Long term empty homes would be a challenge due to the physical and political impact they had on the district and the financial restraints placed on local authorities. 

In response to a question from Councillor Amy Allen, Councillor Prendergast advised that empty homes were a source of complaints and also impacted on other areas such as environmental health because they were empty and neglected.

Councillor Ruth Brown advised of her experience in Royston of the distress that empty homes brought to neighbours and also the drain they were on resources and thanked former Councillor Gary Grindal for bringing this strategy forward.

Councillor Sean Prendergast proposed and Councillor Ruth Brown seconded and, following a vote, it was:

RESOLVED: That Cabinet:

(1)   Adopted the Empty Homes Strategy 2024-29.

(2)   Noted that although there is no legal requirement for the Council to have an Empty Homes Strategy, there have been several significant Government-focussed documents and papers highlighting their importance, including a House of Commons Briefing Paper stating that each local authority should have such a strategy to help reduce the number of long-tern empty homes in their districts.

REASONS FOR DECISIONS:

(1)   The recommendation and considerations are being made to allow the Council to formerly adopt the 5-year Empty Homes Strategy 2024-29 to allow the Environmental Health service to work directly or with others to identify and deliver the most appropriate intervention programme to allow the Council to aim to bring as many long-term empty homes back into occupation as practicable.

(2)   The strategy allows the Council to state its intention to consider every aspect linked to the housing sector to bring into use as many opportunities as it can to meet the district’s housing needs, without having to rely solely on new build. Whilst the number of long-term empty homes is small, and the number likely to be brought back into occupation will be smaller still, this strategy does address this sector which would otherwise be omitted from the overall resource potentially available to form our housing stock.

(3)   By adopting the strategy and allowing for the development of a culture of greater awareness of vacant homes, allows for homes which become vacant to be highlighted sooner, and so they can be monitored and their owners challenged at an earlier point, thus also contributing to hopefully having more homes available for the residents of the district.