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Leeds City Council: We're getting it right - housing chiefs
Leeds City Council has been slammed for having the highest number of empty council homes in the country.
Neil Hudson spoke to housing chiefs about those controversial figures and city's the first new council houses in 20 years.
The saying goes there are lies, damn lies and then there are statistics – and according to council chiefs that's the case when it comes to the number of empty council houses in Leeds.
According to official government statistics released in July, Leeds topped the national league of councils with empty homes – a staggering 1,869.
The figure drew condemnation from Leeds North West MP Greg Mulholland after it was also revealed the council house waiting list stood at almost 30,000.
But, according to Leeds City Council, that data is misleading.
Housing chiefs say that of those 1,869 'empty' properties, some 500-odd were scheduled for demolition (and have since been pulled down), while a further 500 were in a 'transition' phase, with tenants either in the process of leaving or moving in.
According to Leeds housing and neighbourhoods director Neil Evans, that leaves around 700 empty properties across the city, which represents 1.2 per cent of the 58,000 council houses.
Mr Evans said: "What was reported was accurate, which was the number of homes which are vacant according to council tax returns but that included homes awaiting demolition. These homes have since been cleared to make way for another development.
"The figure also included a number of houses which were simply in transition, where the council tax has not yet been taken up but the property has been let.
"The actual figure is at an all-time low. Actual homes standing empty today is about 700, or 1.2 per cent of our total stock, which is about 58,000. We are pretty much in a position of what you would expect."
Go back 10 years, when Leeds Council owned nearly 90,000 homes and that figure stood at 3,150 – about 3.5 per cent of the total.
Over that period, the council house stock in Leeds has reduced
dramatically. Most were sold under the still-controversial Right to Buy
scheme introduced in the 1980s under Margaret Thatcher's Tory
Government.
More recently, Right to Buy sales have dwindled to a mere trickle. In 2005/6 the council sold some 2,000 properties under the scheme, last year it was about 580.
Mr Evans said: "In the past it was true to say there were houses in certain areas which were standing empty simply because people didn't want to move into that area. I think by and large that has gone. Increased demand has meant people are now prepared to take on those houses.
"Add to that the fact we have spent hundreds of millions of pounds improving our council houses in the last decade, to the point where 95 per cent of our stock now meets 'decency' standards. There have been new kitchens, bathrooms, roofs, insulation, heating, doors and windows."
He added: "When you consider the number of properties we deal with, each week we could have something like 100 empty properties enter into the system. The turnover is about 4,500 or 5,000 a year. When we had a higher number of properties, it was something like 8,000 or 9,000.
"I am sure there will be some instances where you will be able to say, you could have dealt with that better. There's no getting round the fact there is pressure on housing."
Part of that pressure comes from people not being able to get on the housing ladder due to inflated property prices but it's a social trend the council is keenly aware of.
The council is building its first new homes in 20 years and some of those will be shared-ownership, helping hard-up househunters get a foot on the housing ladder.
Under the present schemes, there will be 125 new council homes on the site of the former Carltons tower block, Little London, and 275 on the sites of the former Gaitskill Court and Grange Court in Beeston Hill and Holbeck.
There will also be 12 'shared-ownership' council homes on Farrow Drive, Wortley and six 'shared ownership' bungalows on Chaucer Gardens, Pudsey, in addition to several other developments across the city.
Claire Warren is chief executive of West North West Homes Leeds, one of three arm's length management organisations (Almos) which deal with the day-to-day running of council houses across the city.
Almos were set up about 10 years ago as a means of helping councils improve living standards in run-down council homes. While the council retains ownership of the houses, the Almo runs and maintains them and its board of directors is made up in part of tenants, the idea being it can react quicker to solve tenants' problems.
She said: "We are able to identify issues quicker and work on interventions and that's one of the reasons the number of empty houses has come down. .
"Our research shows people want family homes and therefore we have had to make a natural move towards housing that suits the people who are applying for it.
"It's about tenant aspirations about the type of living accommodation. I think we have demand for flats but not in the quantities we did. High rise accommodation suits a number of people but not everyone.
"Social trends change. Nowadays a lot of single people have access to children and they do not want to be in a flat. Council house waiting lists are open to everyone."
That includes people frozen out of the private housing market by high prices, but according to Peter Gruen, executive member for housing in Leeds, that's not something that will change overnight.
He said: "The need for more council housing is clearly established. We have something like 30,000 people on the waiting list and at the moment, if you have not got special priority, you have to wait a long time. We have been doing everything we can but the bottom line is we have not got enough social housing.
"One area we would like to see action on is the number of empty properties in the private sector, which stands at 6,000. I'm not a fan of legislation to force owners to bring those onto the market but I do think we need to work together with the private sector on that.
"In the last three years we have had a lot of money from the Government to improve our homes and 95 per cent of our stock now meet 'decency' standards, but the question hanging over us now is, will there be any more money in the future?"
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