Southwark Council left one of its social homes empty for over 3,000 days, according to the Southwark Liberal Democrats.
They have accused the Labour-run council of “depriving our residents of a place to live” by taking too long to relet unused properties.
Cllr Emily Tester, Southwark Liberal Democrat Housing Spokesperson said: “Our housing crisis… means the council’s deteriorating performance over the years is particularly galling.
“Even if it manages to better its turnaround times as promised, every day a property stayed empty was another day on the council homes waiting list for one of our residents.”
The Liberal Democrats said their enquiries to the council showed the property took 3,122 days to relet after a resident moved out.
The party claims the property was classified as a “major void”, meaning it needed significant repairs, but could not specify its location.
While Southwark Liberal Democrats conceded this case “may be an anomaly”, they added that the council “has been struggling to turn around its empty homes in the past decade”.
Statistics show that, on average, the council has taken 110 days to relet vacant council homes needing major works from 2021 to 2022, almost double the time took ten years ago.
Properties needing minor works took an average of 27 days to turn around from 2010 to 2011, compared to 75 in 2021 to 2022.
In early October, a Southwark Council report revealed 1,714 Southwark council homes were empty. In total, there were 8,588 empty homes but 6,874 of these were privately owned.
http://southwarknews.co.uk/news/housing/southwark-council-has-not-used-key-methods-of-bringing-empty-homes-back-into-use-once-in-past-five-years/
The council has since adopted an ‘Empty Homes Action Plan’ which recommends using mechanisms that allow the council to forcibly manage empty properties it does not own.
These mechanisms include Empty Dwelling Management Orders (EDMOs) and Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPOs).
Addressing the problem of filling homes already under council control, Cllr Tester said: “Going forward, Labour may be able to boost their efforts if they explore policies such as offering cash incentives to tenants for keeping homes in a good state.”