This is National Empty Homes week.

It is scandalous that we have so many people waiting for housing – and so many new houses being built, often against the wishes of the community – but according to the latest statistics in England there are 300,000 homes that have been empty more than 6 months – over 3,000 of those in Berkshire.   439 of those are in Wokingham Borough.  That’s roughly how many houses are going to be built at Hatch Farm Dairies.

A very small number of them are council owned or housing association.  The majority are privately owned.   Often the reason they are empty is that they need repairs and the owner can’t – or won’t – do them.   

Councils have the ability to get these properties back into use.   They should use the powers they have.   

You can read about National Empty Homes week here:  http://www.emptyhomes.com/    The site also tells you how you can report an empty property, as well as other simple things you can do to help the campaign to turn these empty properties into homes.

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