Issue - meetings

1.         That the draft Empty Homes Strategy 2022 – 27 which addressed empty homes in the Winchester district, be approved.

The Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Community and Housing and the Senior Private Sector Housing Officer introduced the report, ref BHP030 (available here) which set out proposals for the Empty Homes Strategy 2022 – 2027.

The committee was recommended to:

1. review the draft strategy which addressed empty homes within the Winchester district 
2. review and comment on the aims and objectives set out in Appendix 4. 

The committee proceeded to ask questions and debate the report. In summary, the following matters were raised:

1. the typical timeframes between the initial correspondence being issued to an owner of an empty property and the subsequent reoccupation of the property
2. the impact of unusual external factors such as the impact of COVID-19 on the rental market, and how properties could become empty in these unusual circumstances and how council policies such as council tax premium were used
3. the potential to review the council tax premium policy to ensure its relevance in current market conditions
4. whether sufficient resources currently exist to manage the empty properties caseload
5. benchmarking the council's performance against near neighbours or similar authorities
6. clarifying the subset of the total number of empty properties to understand where the genuine problems exist
7. confirming the main changes between the previous policy and this draft
8. the timing of the letters notifying property owners of a rise in council tax
9. the use of local ward member knowledge in identifying long term empty properties.

These points were responded to by the Strategic Director, the Corporate Head of Housing and the Senior Private Sector Housing Officer accordingly and were noted by the cabinet members present at the meeting.

RESOLVED:

1.    that the Cabinet Member and officers note the comments of the committee

2.    that officers respond to several questions regarding the use of any available discretions of the council tax premium policy, in particular the use of the charge in exceptional circumstances.