Livingstone pledges action on empty homes
London Mayor Ken Livingstone today pledged to deal with the thousands of London homes that lie empty for months on end.
Speaking at a press conference to launch a week of action on empty homes, the Mayor said it was “unacceptable” that so many houses were unoccupied when there were thousands of families living in temporary or overcrowded accommodation.
He said the GLA had met its targets on empty homes during the last three years, and had reduced the number by 10,000 since 2000.
However, there were still 100,000 empty homes in the capital, including 40,000 homes in private ownership that had been empty for over six months.
Mr Livingstone told journalists: “This is unacceptable at a time when we have over 60,000 homeless families living in temporary accommodation and nearly a quarter of a million households on London boroughs’ waiting lists.”
Mr Livingstone warned that although progress had been good up till now, the GLA was coming up against a ‘core’ of buildings that were the hardest to get occupied.
These houses were often the centre of anti-social behaviour and crime, he added.
He said councils should always be ready to use compulsory purchase orders, but coming to an agreement with the owner – for example, agreeing to renovate the property in exchange for being able to lease if for the next five years – was a more sustainable option, and one less likely to encounter resistance.
And he promised to continue funding the Empty Homes Agency and to keep up the fight against empty homes for the rest of his term in office.
