| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Acton Homeless Charity Reports Soaring Demand for Services | |
| Posted by: | Guy Lambert | |
| Date/Time: | 31/12/11 10:11:00 |
| Trouble is (I didn't see the programme) most of the rows of empty houses are in places where people don't want to live, primarily because there is no work. There are significant chunks of empty land owned often by developers where no activity is taking place, waiting for the market to revive I suppose plus major development plans inching through the system (eg in Brentford). It seems to me that some adjustment to tax regimes could accelerate action on these: the government blames planning but I think it's more about putting funding together, and in any case we need proper planning controls to protect and develop our communities. Given that Plan A mark 2 now seems to be the strategy - ie putting some money into capital infrastructure projects - it would surely make sense to put some of that into affordable/social housing: with some public money pulling and some tax action pushing we might get something built. But I agree about medium/long term empty property: it seems councils have very limited powers to do anything. |