Senior housing chiefs in Peterborough have revealed that there are around 2,000 empty houses throughout the area. The news is even more shocking as there are over 7,000 people on the waiting list for a home.
MP Stewart Jackson has now called for Peterborough City Council to be more aggressive in their approach to this issue so that as many people as possible can be removed from the housing waiting list and placed into a new home. Peterborough’s council cabinet member for housing, Peter Hiller, described the problem as a “minefield” because some of the empty homes are privately owned, but affirmed that the council would strive to get the houses inhabited.
Mr Hiller said “These are not all our properties so it is not just a simple case of putting people into these homes. We have told the housing teams to make full use of their legal powers, such as Empty Dwelling Management Orders, which can see them change a property’s locks and make repairs, to ease the pressure on the housing waiting list. Empty homes can lead to a sub-culture of drug users using the properties and this is not something we need.”
Of the 2,000 empty properties in Peterborough, one third of them have been empty for over six months. These are now being reviewed and they will focus on finding the owners. It is not an easy job as quite often a person has died without a will and there are an awful lot of problems trying to track down the beneficiaries in probate. It is thought the council may try and track some owners through the household insurance policy on the house but this may prove difficult.
Housing chiefs say the waiting list has dropped by 3,000 from two years ago. The drop is believed to be down to more affordable houses being built and less repossessions, and after the review it is likely to drop further to around 6,000. The council also said that it is surprising the amount of people who have no interest in the home that has been left to them. A fact that frustrates not only the council, but the poor people waiting to be re-homed.