Huge number of empty homes near Grenfell 'simply unacceptable' | UK news

Huge number of empty homes near Grenfell 'simply unacceptable' | UK news

Labour has condemned as “simply unacceptable” the 1,652 unoccupied properties in the London borough where the Grenfell Tower fire took place, calling for government action to bring them back into use.

The Liberal Democrats are also demanding increased surcharges on long-term empty homes, following a report in the Guardian about the owners of vacant properties in Kensington and Chelsea, among them oligarchs, foreign royalty and wealthy businesspeople.

London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, said he would make proposals this year to find a more effective way to tackle the issue.

Names emerged in a list detailing the council tax information of the vacant homes and their 1,197 owners. This appeared to have been sent accidentally by the council to multiple recipients, including the Guardian.

The council has admitted the data breach and reported itself to the Information Commissioner’s Office. A spokesperson for the ICO said it was undertaking enquiries.

Among the empty properties is the former Brompton Road tube station building, vacant since it was bought for £53m by the Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash in 2014. He is fighting extradition to the US.

Michael Bloomberg, the media billionaire and former New York mayor, bought a seven-bedroom, Grade II-listed mansion for £16m in 2015 that remains empty.

Other unoccupied properties are owned by offshore companies, including Dukes Lodge London, part of Christian Candy’s luxury property business; and Smech Properties, owned by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the vice-president of the United Arab Emirates and ruler of Dubai.

John Healey, Labour’s shadow housing minister, said: “ said there were about 200,000 long-term vacant homes around the country, “including those bought and left empty by speculative investors”.

He added: “Labour would allow councils to charge a 300% empty-homes premium on properties that have been empty for more than a year and ask them to prepare empty-homes strategies to bring homes back into use in each area.

“We would also reverse the Conservatives’ weakening of councils’ powers to introduce empty dwelling management orders to bring homes back into use.”

Khan commissioned research this year about the scale of homes in London bought by overseas buyers. A spokesman for the Labour mayor said that while overall rates for empty homes in the city were low, the proportion increased in wealthy central areas.

Khan did not consider the 50% council tax surcharge on empty homes “to be sufficient in high-value areas of the capital, and he will be bringing forward proposals for a more effective approach later this year to tackle this issue head on”, the spokesman said.

Wera Hobhouse, the Liberal Democrats’ local government spokeswoman, said: “We could be hiking up council tax far more â€" at the moment some such people are paying a 50% premium but if they’re so wealthy they don’t care.

“We could put council tax up on such property to 200% or more to ramp up the pressure on such owners to put their portfolios on the market. The proceeds of increased council tax could then be invested in more affordable housing and safety measures.”

Kensington and Chelsea, which is struggling to identify a sufficient number of local homes to replace those in Grenfell Tower, charges an extra 50% of full council tax â€" the maximum permitted â€" on homes left empty for two years or more.

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However, with the top band of local council tax set at just over £2,100 a year, this is not likely to be a major disincentive for wealthy owners. Of the 1,652 empty homes listed, more than one in three are recorded as having been unoccupied for more than two years.

Kim Taylor-Smith, the deputy leader of Kensington and Chelsea council, said: “Unfortunately, we have no powers to compel owners to live in their properties, but we can and do offer support and advice to help bring long-term empty properties back into use.”

The Liberal Democrat councillor Linda Wade said the council’s response to the problem was inadequate, saying the number of empty homes harmed both the local economy and the vitality of the community. She said: “There are areas within the borough that are dying as no one is living there.”

Weeks after the Grenfell fire, the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, suggested using emergency legislation to requisition empty properties needed to house those affected by the blaze.

Cllr Theo Blackwell, the cabinet member for finance, technology and growth at Camden council, said the number of long-term empty homes locally had fallen by 37% since the 50% council tax premium was introduced in 2013. But he called on the government to grant local authorities greater powers to impose a higher premium. “It is only Whitehall rules preventing this from happening,” he said.

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