Assembly Member says: "Get empty homes back into use and save the taxpayers some money"

12.00.00am GMT Wed 3rd Mar 2010

A local Assembly Member has suggested to the Welsh Assembly Government that more can be done to get empty homes back into use. Welsh Liberal Democrat Michael German made his proposed incentive for property owners during a debate in the National Assembly this afternoon.

"Empty homes left empty do not provide anything positive for local communities and deny affordable homes for young people and families that are affordable, comfortable, warm and secure. Sometimes these buildings can become hotspots for anti-social behaviour as well as causing damage to nearby buildings. It also denies the chance for young people and families to get housing whilst waiting for ever to get an affordable home."

Mr. German proposed the idea of creating grants to turn properties that are empty into new homes. He suggested that grants of up to £10,000 should be provided for homeowners who want to bring an empty property back into use, in exchange for this property being used for social housing for a minimum of ten years.

Mr. German said, "This could be an attractive proposition for those with a property that is currently empty. They get a grant to bring their property up to standard, followed by ten years of almost guaranteed rent and we get a new affordable social house at a fraction of the cost of building a new one. This means that Government money for housing goes a lot further. A win win situation."

He added, "Given that there are an estimated 26,000 empty properties in Wales, there would be no shortage of applicants."

Currently the Welsh Assembly Government uses its Social Housing Grant to build properties. Mr. German said that building a new homes was expensive, "Putting an empty property back into use actually benefits the community and is far cheaper. Several empty property grants could be issued for the cost of building one new home.

"This has been one of the problems with the government approach to affordable housing. It has been far to focused on building new properties and that isn't always the answer. So, I would be grateful if the Deputy Minister would consider following our lead on this proposal at the very least creating a strategy for dealing with empty properties."