Government Overlooks 500,000 Empty Properties
Considering that the government is meant to be all about cutting the social housing list, they are making a poor job of it.
Aside from only producing 100,000 of the 400,000 new property developments they promised last year, the government is now also choosing to overlook 500,000 properties which have currently spent the last 6 months lying empty!
In a study by the Guardian, they discovered that across 75% of local authorities in the UK, more than a half a million properties are lying empty. 500,000 properties which could easily cut the growing 1.8 million social housing list by up to 25%.
Yet what shocks me more is the variety of reasons being given for why these properties are being left empty:
Alongside keeping a large proportion of private sector property developments empty to avoid incurring council tax; many local authorities have also been found to be purposefully keeping these properties empty as it guarantees them a decent government grant. Put these properties into use, and local authorities will receive a smaller grant and a less reliable council tax income!
Now I am no genius, but even I can see that these 500,000 empty properties could easily be put into better use by helping to alleviate the escalating property shortage, not just sitting there barren.
Yet in the eyes of the government this need to ‘not lose out on funding’ apparently appears to be a perfectly reasonable explanation for not pressurising local authorities into taking action. It’s ridiculous!
Wendy xx
