Issue - meetings

Interview with Neil Coles, Housing Services Manager

In the absence of an officer the committee agreed to discuss the report.

The council’s Empty Homes Plan was adopted in January 2013 and set out three priorities to support empty homes being brought back into use across the borough:

·  Priority 1 – Minimise the number of empty homes through the council’s interventions;

·  Priority 2 – Maximise opportunities for returning homes back into use through initiatives and incentives, and;

·  Priority 3 – Maximise the effectiveness of enforcement action to bring empty homes back into use.

The Empty Homes Plan included an action plan to return empty homes back into use.  Performance against the action plan was reported as follows:

·  Between January 2013 and July 2014 212 empty homes had been returned to use following the council’s intervention;

·  Between November 2012 and October 2013 statistics showed the number of empty homes across Maidstone reduced by 11% from 1,401 to 1,239;

·  The number of long-term empty homes reduced by 1.4% from 420 to 414;

·  The number of empty homes across Maidstone as a percentage of the total dwelling stock fell from 2.11% to 1.85%.

During discussion the following questions were raised:

·  Would funding beyond 2015 be available to staff the Empty Homes initiative?

·  Would the empty homes bought back into use be used as ‘windfall’ figures to reduce the objectively assessed housing need figure for the Local Plan?

RESOLVED: That,

The Community, Environment and Housing Overview and Scrutiny Committee noted the contents of the report.

The following questions be send to the Head of Housing and Community Services:

·  Would funding beyond 2015 be available to staff the Empty Homes initiative?

·  Would the empty homes bought back into use be used as ‘windfall’ figures to reduce the objectively assessed housing need figure for the Local Plan?