The Evening Post has covered our campaign victory on empty homes today.Reading Borough Council's empty homes strategy should be rubber stamped at Cabinet this evening.
The public consultation on the draft strategy starts tomorrow and lasts until 31 May 2008, after which the strategy will go to full Council for approval later this year.
I will post a link to the consultation here tomorrow - please do have your say!
Overall, the new strategy looks very good and is a testament to the work put in by a number of officers at RBC. I am slightly concerned however, that the Council has set aside enough resources to tackle the problem. Bringing empty private properties back into use will need input from several Council departments, many of whom (such as Planning Enforcement and Legal Services) are already overstretched. This could lead to delays in action being taken and the Lib Dems will be monitoring the Council's performance on this area very closely.
I would also like to see the strategy attach more weight to empty homes in ir adjacent to Conservation areas, as it is these properties often exert an even greater negative impact on local areas. The empty property on Christchurch Road, corner of Kendrick Road is a case in point.
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