Homes that have sat vacant for more than six months should be brought into the control of the local authority, says Westminster City Council

by BulkyAccident

30 comments

  1. They’ll come for your private spare rooms next.

  2. The amount of exemptions that will need to be carved into this will make it pointless.

    Divorce, death debt – the classics. Plus another D: freehold/leasehold and other ‘disputes’.

    Then of course building renovations, large repairs.

    Politicians will get to look good briefly though.

  3. Please can we:

    • Build more dense housing around tube stations – well connected, car free, near shops and travel

    • Build more tube lines – ofc the Bakerloo and CR2

    • Improve cycling and walking infrastructure in central

    We have the ability to make so much more housing without needing any greenfield at all. 

  4. Not sure if I wouldn’t prefer it to be 12 months for taking control, but after first 6 (or maybe just 3?) months of house being vacant a warning and drastically increased council tax.

    Unless of course proper reason would be given. But proper reason, not “*a* reason”.

  5. Good. Use it or lose it. Homes for humans are more important than your investment opportunities.

  8. One of the problems is finding the actual owners to advise them of this. They’re often owned by a tangled web of offshore brass plate companies which are in turn owned by another brass plate and so on (peeling an onion).

  9. Honestly unenforceable. Just steeply increase the council tax every 6 months it stays empty. 

  10. Yes this but also: vacant commercial premises. Too many pubs, shops, various venues are left vacant for years, destroying the high street, because the owners don’t want to drop the price to a real market rate. It’s one of the key things hollowing out town/ city centres. In many cases in London it’s just a strategy to get them rezoned so they can turn them into executive flats….

  11. Compulsory Purchase is a lawful power, but they need to include empty offices too. We have far too little housing.

  12. That would be pointless since most London councils have dozens of empty council flats that have been empty for years -including Westminster – and are busy selling them off.

  13. 6 months is may be too less of a time in case of some major events or major repairs but this is a good idea

  14. Well that would massively complicate the winding up of a deceased person’s estate

  15. I’m a minor beneficiary of a man who died in 2023. His house has been on the market since September 2024 and still hasn’t sold despite a 12% reduction. 

    If the local authority wants to buy it at market value I’d be thrilled. 

    Sadly, it’s not in Westminster. 

  17. This is, at best, marketing by Westminster City Council

    Depending on the detail there will be services which help people stay just inside the definitions of “occupied” for a negligible cost. The number of actual abandoned homes in Westminster is likely to be very very small

    Importantly Westminster is a labour council which is actually on the edge of flipping back to conservative. Headlines like this are to win votes and not serious policy.

  18. Leave a couple bits of furniture and personal possessions- bam no longer vacant

  19. And totally neglecting the fact that if I bought a property, it should be my choice what I choose to do with it. Also, why should I pay double council tax on it? I’m actually using less council resources so you’re basically punishing me for the ‘crime’ of doing what I want with my own property that I purchased with after-tax money?

  22. One of those things that sounds good on the surface but would make no sense on a practical and enforceable level

  23. It would be easier to control illegal immigration than trying to go into this battle.

  24. What a stupid idea.

    My house (granted now in Westminster) was empty for almost 18 months due to building work. The amount of exemptions this needs is just pointless busy work

  25. There would need to be so many exceptions built into this it would kind of make it pointless

  27. The vast majority of comments here are negative, the complexity of the plan is obviosly an issue but the reason nothing ever gets done in this country – like reducing homelessness for example, is largely because people complain endlessly about everything but don’t actually want a solution – they just want a fucking good moan on Reddit while sat on a shitty train on an overpriced shit service going home from a shit job to a shoddily built shitty home that they can barely afford…

  28. Theft of private property requested by someone at Westminster Council

  30. I approve of both taking back empty properties and building more housing. Because seriously, 11,000 empty properties in one borough is absurd.

Comments are closed.