23rd June 2006 - The Empty Homes Agency launched a campaign to raise awareness of the problem of empty homes in Walthamstow.
The biggest culprits are private homeowners and the council is now offering refurbishment grants of up to £10,000 in an effort to bring hundreds of homes back into use.
Properties can be empty for a number of reasons including the death of the owner, contested wills or the owner simply leaving it empty to accrue in value.
A scheme nearing completion in Walthamstow High Street will see 30 such flats bought back into use in partnership with a private sector landlord.
Cllr Marie Pye, Portfolio Holder for Housing, said: We have 3,000 empty properties in Waltham Forest of which half are long-term private sector voids.
Leaving them unoccupied is not an option when you consider we have more than 11,000 people on our housing waiting list.”
In response, we’re offering home-owners a complete service in an effort to move things along including bringing the property back into use, finding a tenant and, in some cases, guaranteed rental income for the term of the contract.
We have to be active and do all we can to create more housing opportunities because the number of new builds and family sized homes are negligible and can never met demand.”
If you suspect a property of being empty, please ring Paul Ahmed on 0208 496 6502
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