Welsh Liberal Democrats call for empty home renovation grants

12.00.00am GMT Fri 12th Feb 2010

Welsh Liberal Democrat Shadow Minister for Housing, Peter Black, has called on the Welsh Assembly Government to follow the example set by the English Government and to support Liberal Democrat policies of providing grants to owners of empty properties so as to bring them back into use.

The English Liberal Democrats have recently announced a policy that will see £1 billion invested in grants to put empty properties back into use as affordable homes within the social sector. The Westminster Government has announced that £1 million will be given to 17 councils in Britain to invest in bringing empty properties back into use.

The grants proposed by the Liberal Democrats would be given to owners of long term empty properties to renovate their property and bring it back into use. In exchange the owner would have to let the property be used as social housing for a minimum of ten years. There are currently over 92,000 households on social housing waiting lists within Wales and an estimated 26,000 empty private sector properties.

The Welsh Liberal Democrats have also proposed allowing councils in Wales to charge additional council tax on empty properties. This would act as an additional payment to compensate the community for the blight caused by a long-term empty property as well as an incentive for the owner to bring the home back into use. The Welsh Assembly Government has included this proposal in the new Affordable Housing LCO.

Peter Black said:

"The large number of empty residential properties around Wales is a massive social and environmental problem that needs to be tackled. With such a shortage of affordable homes it is madness to keep building more when we have a potential resource such as this that can be brought back into use.

"By giving grants to those who own empty properties in Wales who want to bring their properties back into use and taxiing those who don't, we can create a 'carrot and stick' approach that will encourage owners to bring them back into use."

"If the Liberal Democrats win the election, there will be additional money for Wales to implement this scheme, however, if this does not happen there is still money that can be used within existing Welsh budgets."

"Social housing grant is currently being used to build new properties. Whilst this is an important way to provide more affordable properties some of this money could be used for these grants giving us more homes for our money.

"One of the weaknesses of the Welsh Government's current housing policies is that they have no strategy to deal with empty properties. That must change and these proposals can prove an important part of that work."