Categories: uncategorized
Date: 17 October 2008 12:52:55
Did you know that there are 80,000 families on the waiting list for council/social housing in Wales? There are also 24,500 empty private houses that have been for 6 months or more.
At the end of our road is a house that has been empty for at least 3-4 months. It was bought by a "property developer" who has done some work on it to improve it for resale but nothing further has happened. He finished it just as the housing market collapsed. It wasn't unreasonably priced when he bought it and, if all things had gone to plan, he'd be looking at a 30-40% profit.
So if he knows he can't sell, and it is costing him money while empty, why hasn't he put it onto the rental market? At least there would be money coming in every month. The rental market is still bouyant as people are looking to rent until the avalability of mortgages recovers.
Government, of the local and national kinds, have been "looking" at this situation for several years but, as ever, have done nothing about it. Maybe they're worried that families in more affluent areas will complain that their house prices are effected if more low income families move in.
It costs more to keep a family in B&B accomodation than it would to house them in rented accomodation. At least by temporarily encouraging empty houses to be used would give the government time to encourage the building of more housing to accomodate them.
Yet no one wants to build social housing. It is difficult to fund at the moment and the government shows no desire to encourage it. Yet there is a dowenturn in the construction industry and many experienced people are being sacked or made redundant.
Wouldn't it be better to encourage them to carry on building social housing instead? This would reduce the unemployment levels and help tackle the shortage of accomodation.