Council loans for empty homes

Callum Brodie • Published 14 Nov 2008 15:00 0 Comments

The Royal Borough is spear-heading a £1m campaign to put pressure on homeowners who refuse to keep their properties in a habitable condition.

The empty homes loans scheme has been set up by council chiefs in a bid to encourage the owners of the 400 empty houses in the borough to seek assistance in making their properties liveable again.

Anyone owning multiple properties who leaves their houses unoccupied and in a bad state of repair are being advised to take advantage of the borough's five-year bridging loan to carry out the necessary work, this can be repaid via monthly instalments, occasional payments or by just letting the interest mount up.

Martyn Clemence, housing projects officer for the Royal Borough, explained: "The problem that we have with certain homeowners in the borough is procrastination. One example that I often point to is that of a beautiful house near Windsor with a land value of around £1m, that has been totally destroyed by neglect and become victim to squatters and vandals.

"When we contacted the owner he said that he had left the country and was unconcerned about the state of the house as he was just interested in leaving it to his children."

Although it is hoped that the majority of homeowners with uninhabitable properties will enter the scheme, those who refuse to co-operate could find themselves losing their abandoned homes.

Mr Clemence, continued: "We will look to take out a compulsory purchase order against houses that continue to present a risk to the public. This will result in the borough taking possession of the property and compensating the owner with what the property was worth at the time."

The loans initiative is in response to a government target to reduce the number of empty homes and is also part of a core scheme to aid elderly people in the borough.

The scheme is set to be rolled out to 15 other local authorities in Berkshire to mark the start of the National Empty Homes Week on December 3.

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This article appeared in Royal Borough Observer 14 Nov 08

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