If you are a regular reader of this blog you may recall that back in April I was invited to attend a seminar hosted by the Department of Communities and Local Government (CLG) on the issue of tackling empty homes. I relished this opportunity to lobby ministers and civil servants face to face for action.
In many ways it was the logical next step of successful my local campaign.
Well, since then there has been a reshuffle and Ian Wright MP has been replaced by another Ian - in this case Ian Austin MP, who will take on the responsibility for housing and regeneration within CLG.
Today I wrote him a letter:
Dear Mr Austin,
First of all I would like to congratulate you on your appointment to your new post within CLG.
I attended a seminar organised by the Department for Communities and Local Government on the subject of tackling empty homes on 23 April.
I found the event extremely useful as it enabled me to share my knowledge and experience on this important issue with other councillors, officers, civil servants and experts such as David Ireland of the Empty Homes Agency.
It was nice to feel listened to and I felt that my participation did help shed light on the problems faced by local councillors in takling this issue.
However, since the event was held I have not heard anything from your Department and I am left wondering what next steps are planned in relation to empty homes. This is disappointing.
The then Parliamentary Under-Secretary Iain Wright MP impressed on me his keeness for the government to look at ways to empower local authorities and local communities to do more to reduce the number of empty homes across the country. I welcome this.
In Reading we are lucky enough to have an empty homes strategy and an officer who is able to dedicate much of his time to tracking down errant landlords and attempting to bring empty propertries back into use. This was only possible because of a motion to Council which I tabled alongside an active local campaign.
Not all local authorities are so lucky. As the seminar revealed, the amount of resources councils are able to devote to this important issue varies widely across the country and not all councillors and officers see the wider benefit to the community of reducing the number of empty properties in their area.
I am writing to you to find out what follow-up activity is planned both directly with attendees following this seminar and what you personally plan to do to continue the work of your predecessor, Mr Wright, in relation to tackling the problem of empty homes.
Now, more than ever, it is important that the government works even harder to ensure that all obstacles to progress in the battle to reduce the number of empty homes are removed.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely,
Cllr Daisy Benson
Chair, Housing, Health and Community Care Scrutiny Panel.
Let's see what happens! I'll post the Minister's response here.
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