Friday 28 October 2011

Empty homes or empty promises?

A short time ago I blogged about Cornwall Council's promise to use its powers of compulsory purchase to help deal with some of the county's 4,000 empty homes. So I was puzzled to find no mention of this exciting new policy in the draft budget, due to be presented to the full council next month. Here's the answer:
"There is no specific sum allocated for funding the compulsory purchase of homes - it is part of our overall strategy for bringing empty homes back into use and provide more affordable housing. Compulsory purchase would be the last resort and the funding for doing this would come from the £1.9m new homes bonus."
Cornwall's councils have had powers of compulsory purchase for many years - and have never, ever, used them. I've made a note to ask again, in 12 months, to find out how many of those 4,000 empty homes have been brought back into use.


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