Agenda item

This report provides an update on the status of empty properties also known as voids in the housing service. This includes information on the current number of voids, improvements made over the past two years and an outline of the ongoing plan to reduce the number of vacant properties.

John Hayden (Assistant Director of Repairs) provided an update on the status of empty properties, i.e. voids in the housing service, including the current number of voids, improvements made over the past two years, an ongoing plan to reduce the number of vacant properties for different areas, and voids audits and reassurance. He reckoned by about June 2025, the voids target business as usual position would be maintained at 60 properties while the rental loss at any given time would be less than 40 days.

Richard Shwe (Director of Housing) appreciated the good job done by the Repairs team to reduce the number of voids. He highlighted the lessons learnt, including focusing on recovery of the voids for residents’ use and enhancing the understanding of teams across the Housing Service about void management.

The Chair asked about the respective standards on recovering voids for council residents or as temporary accommodation for homelessness. John Hayden noted that they were two different types of voids. Voids properties turning into temporary accommodation for homeless people were not council stock but given by other housing bodies in the borough. All void properties of the Council met the Decent Home Standards upon recovery. Those used as temporary accommodation came in varied conditions and they might be recovered with or without decorations/flooring and meet the Decent Home Standards eventually.

Councillor Omid Miri was concerned about the impact of under-occupation during the recovery of void properties. John Hayden noted that starting about 6 weeks ago, the Council was incentivising people in under-occupied properties to move into some of the newly recovered properties as an option for independent living. The vacated properties would then be recovered for people on the housing register to bid for homes. He added that the voids recovery works were carried out by the term contractors.

Noting that potential residents might bid after viewing the void properties two weeks before completion, Councillor Miri was concerned the outstanding works might lead to their misinformation. John Hayden assured that the remaining works were just decorative finishing and the viewers would have received an online pack about the homes before viewing. He noted that surveys were conducted among residents six weeks after they had moved in to gauge the gap, if any, between expectation and reality.

Councillor Adronie Alford asked about the target dates of recovery completion of voids. John Hayden noted that it was 90+ days for major voids and capital works the current number of cases for which were 15 and 45 respectively. The major voids included structural works and major component replacement works whilst the capital works were more complicated with the majority of the voids having been subject to large insurance claims due to fire in tower blocks. He added that the remaining cases were targeted to complete within 60 days.

On Councillor Asif Siddique’s question of recovering private voids, John Hayden referred to the Council’s acquisition policy under the Asset Strategy whereby the Procurement team looked at opportunities for purchasing and recovering private voids to supplement temporary accommodation with outgoing leases. John agreed to provide a profile of identified private voids after the meeting.

ACTION: John Hayden

Richard Shwe remarked that a new system had been in place to report live information which allowed regular monitoring so that the Repairs team worked together with other teams on housing allocations and management to bring more homes back into use.

Councillor Frances Umeh (Cabinet Member for Housing and Homelessness) appreciated the teamwork of different parts of the Housing services to return empty homes into the stock. She highlighted the classification of voids with respective target dates of completion had helped streamlining the process which was recognised as fundamental and important by the audits. Councillor Umeh acknowledged that the Repairs team had worked incredibly hard to reduce the number of empty homes and bring them back into the service. She remarked that it was crucial for residents to provide feedback to the Repairs team to ensure the recovered properties met the required standards as expected.

Questions from the floor

Martin Thirlaway referred to the proposal of establishing a wholly owned council housing company which had been considered by the Cabinet at a recent meeting. In response to his concern, John Hayden noted that the void properties mentioned in this update were stock in the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) which would not be transferred to the housing company. Councillor Umeh added that private properties acquired under the housing company could be used for individual rental and would not form part of the Council’s social housing stock.

Responding to Marie Thomas’ question about the types of properties among the voids, John Hayden said many of them were properties in multi- occupied buildings with the majority being studios or 1-bed. A few of more complex voids with roofing and structural issues could be street properties.

As regards Scott Reete’s question about the number of void properties in the Council, housing associations and private sector, John Hayden remarked that while benchmark data on voids against other local authorities was available, private associations did not publish their number of empty properties. John further noted that properties became voids when the tenant served a termination notice without which re-possession would be done through a legal process. He said that the scheme managers conducted daily checks with properties to ascertain their occupancy. Nevertheless, the local authority would not take possession of those properties whose residents had moved out due to medical needs.

RESOLVED

The Committee noted the information set out in the report.