Bradford Council Lauds Empty Homes Strategy

Thursday, 1 December 2016 07:00

A block of run down houses blighting a Bradford street have been renovated and brought back into use by Bradford Council working in partnership with a youth charity.

A number of houses in a block in Wellington Street, Laisterdyke, had become empty, suffering damage and fly-tipping.

The owners had given up trying to let them due to previous tenants wrecking the property and moving out.

To prevent further deterioration of the street, Bradford Council’s empty homes team and property law team bought four of the houses and agreed to sell them on to the Bradford Youthbuild Trust (BYBT), a charity which combines training young people in construction trades with providing renovated property to let at affordable rents.

By October this year all the renovations had been carried out and all the houses had been successfully let, a few weeks before the start of national Empty Homes Week which runs all this week.

Owners of empty properties often live elsewhere and are unaware of the impact that their empty property is having on the local community.

An empty property can be very distressing for neighbours as it can become a magnet for anti-social behaviour such as vandalism and graffiti and is also at risk of being squatted in as well as fraud and other criminal activities.

Councillor Val Slater, Deputy Leader of Bradford Council, said: “This is a great example of what can be achieved through partnership working within the Council and with outside agencies.”

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