'Get to grips with empty housing'
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The Government needs to urgently tackle the problem of empty property, mortgage experts have warned.
Speaking at a Money Marketing mortgage round table, Emba group sales and marketing director Mike Fitzgerald says the coalition Government
should focus on regeneration of empty homes.
He said: “We have got 670,000 empty homes in England alone. This is not all on sink estates, it is in places like Saffron Walden. There are hundreds of empty homes in nice little towns. Over half a million people could be housed.
“There is no plan to deal with it. There are a few airy-fairy ideas but no housing minister has got to grips with the scandal that is empty housing. It is a story that would go down well in the papers if the Government could turn that into good accommodation for people up and down the country and it would create jobs as well.”
Nationwide head of mortgage strategy and policy Andrew Baddeley-Chappell stressed that carbon efficiency needs to be considered when regenerating properties.
He added: “Another thing we need to address is the green agenda and the fact that the existing stock needs to be updated and improved as well.
So you have not just got to fund building more homes, you have also got to fund taking what we have got and reducing the emissions from them by 80 per cent by 2050.”
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Readers' comments (1)
Evan Owen | 23 Jul 2010 12:29 pm
I am involved in a group which is attempting to house people in an area which has a dire need of affordable housing, one of the wheezes is an attempt to use empty homes, some are uninhabitable and need a lot of money to bring them up to scratch, the owners have grap 90% grants to do the work, rent them out for five years only and then flog them on the open market without repaying a penny to the council!!
Do people want a five year solution or a permanent one? Is it wise to spend good money on short term 'sticking plaster' or would the money be better spent for the long term? The funamental issue is that politicians would prefer to send money to Africa or fight wars in far away places than build houses which bring wealth and of course a roof over someone's head! Oh, I forgot about the planning system and the regulators who enforce it, like the FSA they lose sight of the basics.
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