Agenda item

To present the report of the Head of Housing Services.

The report of the Head of Housing Services incorporating the Empty Homes Strategic Plan for 2023 to 2028 was presented for the Committee’s consideration and scrutiny.

The report and Strategy were presented by Councillor Llinos Medi, the Council’s Leader who referred to the success of the previous strategy in returning 525 properties back into use since 2017. Similarly the purpose of the successor plan is to ensure that the number of empty properties is kept to a minimum and to encourage owners to bring them back into use. It sets out how the Council deals with empty properties and forms part of the range of housing solutions which will assist in achieving the objectives of the Council Plan 2023-28. The importance of working in partnership with property owners and other services in addressing empty properties was emphasised and the case studies contained within the report were highlighted by the Leader as examples of successful interventions bringing derelict properties back into use as much needed social housing.

The Housing Services Manager in reporting on the contents of the strategic plan said that empty properties are a wasted resource especially so at a time when the pressures on the housing market and rental sector are increasing. The aim through the plan is to work with and encourage owners of empty properties to bring them back into use preferably by negotiation and agreement but with recourse to enforcement action should that be necessary and as a last resort. The Housing Service recognises that working together with other services and agencies is the most effective way of dealing with the various aspects of empty properties and the strategic plan has been developed on the basis of partnership working. The Service also aims to draw down value by delivering financial support via Welsh Government grants and loans as well as utilising the Council Tax Premium to ensure the best use of available resources and capacity which are modest in comparison with the output of 525 properties brought back into use since 2017.

In considering the Empty Homes Strategic Plan the Committee raised the following issues –

·      The challenges in encouraging the owners of empty properties in the private sector to engage with the Council.

·      Noting that 77 properties have been recorded as being empty for over 10 years and 128 recorded as being empty for between 5 and 10 years, the Committee wanted to know how many long-term empty properties had been returned to use since 2017.

·      The ways in which the Strategic Plan contributes to achieving the priorities of the Council Plan 2023-28

·      The extent to which the Council is dependent on partners and grant funding to make the Strategic Plan a reality.

·      Requested that the Committee be provided with details of the Plan’s governance arrangements as regards monitoring and evaluation along with the Action Plan when issued.

The Leader and Officers provided the Committee with further advice and assurance as follows –

·      That in developing the Strategic Plan a survey was sent to all owners of long-term empty properties totalling 542 properties but excluding properties in receipt of Council Tax exemptions such as properties in probate, owners receiving care elsewhere or in residential care/hospitals, and owners in detention to ascertain what incentives would persuade them to bring those properties back into use. The survey generated a response rate of 16%. The feedback from the responses to the survey has provided the Service with a number of pointers which it is working on and in many instances the initial contact whereby advice and information is provided is sufficient to initiate the process of bringing an empty property back into use. The Service also signposts empty property owners to available loans and grants and additionally the Council is one of 16 local authorities involved in a Welsh Government initiative to bring empty properties back into use. Whilst the Council endeavours to communicate with owners of empty properties, it cannot address every empty property and seeks to target the most problematic.

The Committee noted the results of the Empty Properties Survey in particular the response rate of 16% which it was felt was not a fair reflection of empty property owners wanting to work with the Council.

·      That the Council has been successful in returning some longer-term empty properties back into use for example the Old Social Club in Beaumaris. However, the greatest volume of turnaround is in relation to those properties that have been empty for one to five years as a great deal of perseverance is required to work with and sometimes identify the owners of properties that have been empty for 10 years or more. Whilst the Council Tax Premium is levied on empty properties (with certain exceptions), it is likely that owners of properties that have been empty for some time will have requested the Valuation Office that they be removed from the Council Tax list due to their not being habitable as a home making it more difficult to establish ownership thereafter.

The Housing Service Manager clarified that as the Housing Service continues to work with the owners of some empty properties that have been exempted from Council Tax these have been included in the Service’s statistics and those might therefore vary from the data held by the Finance Service. In response to a suggestion about increasing the premium on problematic empty properties, the Committee was advised that that would require the creation of a local policy to allow categorisation of empty homes which would need to be confirmed as permissible under current legislation.

A further question was asked about whether there was a mechanism to allow the Council to purchase long term empty homes that have been taken off the Council Tax list because of their condition assuming that their removal from the list might indicate that the owner wishes to dispose of the property which might otherwise fall into further disrepair. The Committee was advised that one of the interventions available to the Council is to come to an agreement with the owner of a long-term empty home to purchase the property providing it is financially viable for the Council to do so. The re-development of the derelict Plas Alltran in Holyhead is an example of such an intervention.

·      That the Strategic Plan contributes to achieving the priorities of the Council Plan 2023-28 in that one of the priorities is ensuring that everyone has the right to call somewhere home which need the strategic plan helps fulfil and in enabling people to remain within their local communities the Plan contributes to the opportunities to learn and use the Welsh language. Income generated from the Council Tax empty homes premium supports grants for first time buyers of empty homes and that resource is then spent within the local economy and supports local contractors and local goods. In response to a query about the Welsh language and local connection it was confirmed that due to the variety of schemes, the criteria vary with local connection being a criterion for a Welsh Government scheme as well as the Homebuy scheme with details available on the Council’s website.

·      That the process of regenerating empty homes is not one which the Council undertakes alone but is dependent on effective engagement with the owners of empty properties and on Welsh Government for grant and loan interventions as well as working together as services to tackle the most problematic properties.

Having scrutinised the Empty Homes Strategic Plan for 2023-28 and noted the response of Officers to the issues raised, the Corporate Scrutiny Committee resolved to recommend the Empty Homes Strategic Plan 2023-28 for the Executive’s approval. (Councillor Aled Morris Jones abstained from voting)

Action - the Committee to be provided with details of the Empty Homes Strategic Plan’s governance arrangements and Action Plan when issued.