10 Feb 2010 - Lib Dems take action on Empty Homes
The Lib Dems running Bristol council are taking action against the large number of empty homes in the city. Housing supremo and Cabot councillor, Mark Wright, has launched a drive that will use a "carrot and stick" approach to get landlords to bring empty homes back into use.
An Empty Property Summit was held in Bristol in January with a range of key agencies that have an excellent reputation for bringing empty properties back into use. These included the Empty Homes Agency, the National Association of Empty Property Practitioners, the National Landlords Association and Homes4Bristol.
Cllr Wright commented, "It's totally disgraceful that homes lie empty while there are so many families without a proper home. Property owners who leave their homes empty have a social responsibility to put those houses to use as quickly as possible."
The new plan is to offer better advice and help to property owners, while also getting tougher with those who are uncooperative. Bristol is now actively pursuing the use of Empty Dwelling Management Orders (EDMOs) which are used where all other means of bringing a property back into use have failed.