In the face of the housing crisis facing Lambeth, and the wider capital, the council has set out new plans to bring empty homes in the borough back into use in a bid to help meet the huge demand for accommodation.
Lambeth’s Empty Homes and Voids Action Plan defines different types of empty home, sets out the impacts on Lambeth and outlines actions the council is taking to continue to improve the turn around between letting of council properties and bring other empty homes back into use across the borough.
The council is also asking residents to report empty properties in a bid to get on top of the issue by emailing emptyproperties@lambeth.gov.uk or by filling out a form at lambeth.gov.uk. The council will investigate reports, contact the owner and if empty will work to bring the property back into use where possible.
The plan is desperately needed because the housing crisis has seen demand for homes far outstrip supply, private renting becoming ever more unaffordable and desperate shortage of affordable housing to meet demand which has led to long waiting lists and rising homelessness. Last year 5,500 people made homelessness applications to Lambeth Council, and pressure for temporary accommodation continues to rise.
The huge scale of the challenge means Lambeth Council, in common with other local authorities, is identifying every possible way to provide the homes people need. This is key because across England in 2022 there were 676,304 empty homes according to council tax stats, up 3.6 per cent on the year before.
Cllr Danny Adilypour, the Council’s Deputy Leader and Cabinet member for Housing, Investment and New Homes, said:
“Housing is in short supply in Lambeth, our housing waiting list is long and the lack of affordable homes put real pressure on our residents and our local communities. It is also putting a huge strain on the council’s budget.
“Across the private sector, housing associations and our own council stock we know there are a range of properties that are empty for a range of reasons. We have adopted this new action plan to ensure as many houses as possible are made available to local households as quickly as possible.
“It sets out the important steps we are taking to tackle this issue including quicker turn around of council homes that need repairs before we can house people in them, using data to track availability and regularly sharing updates with our communities on progress made.”
The Empty Homes and Voids Action plan has been adopted by Lambeth Council and supports wider measures including plans to put a 100 per cent council tax premium on empty properties and building 500 new homes on council owned land.
In November the council announced the borough’s new property licensing scheme is set to be rolled out across most of the borough after a successful launch in four wards earlier last year with the aim of driving up housing standards for renters.
Lambeth Council is one of the biggest social landlords in the country, with 33,000 rented and leasehold council homes. Around 23,000 of these are tenants directly with the Council. As a result, it has a high number of its own properties that become empty when tenancies change.
Some homes will always be empty at any given time because of their suitability, as well the time it takes to assess, repair and re-let these properties between tenancies. The new plan aim to accelerate ongoing work to ensure that these properties are available to residents as soon as is possible, and increase the supply of desperately needed family sized homes.
To read the new action plan visit moderngov.lambeth.gov.uk.
