Empty Homes are a Blight on Norwich

Norwich homeowner Ailee Beckett is fed up with the City Council’s refusal to act over a dwelling which has been empty next door to her house for more than ten years.

Ms Beckett said:

‘Having an abandoned house next door is worrying.  The house is not heated, nor maintained and maybe not even insured.  I worry that any damage or damp would spread to my property and I could not get into next door to sort out the underlying problem.  No one knows the state of the house, there could be stacks of letters and papers creating a fire hazard.  The garden is wild and encroaching onto my property.’ 

Nelson councillor Denise Carlo who steps down from the City Council on 4 May contacted the Council to enquire about the range of options available to the Council and whether an Empty Dwelling Management Order (1) would be appropriate but the Environment Protection team who visited the property says that it isn’t causing a health or safety hazard and the Council doesn’t have the resources to take action.

Ms Carlo enquired about the number of empty residential properties across Norwich and the Council’s strategy for bringing them back into use. Norwich City Council says there are 161 residential properties which have been empty for two or more years and paying a Council Tax premium (2):

Empty 2 – 5 years = 114

Empty 5 – 10 years = 32

Empty 10 years +    = 15   (3)

The Council does not currently employ an Empty Property Officer and it does not have an up-to-date strategy for bringing empty properties back into use. 

Ms Carlo said:

‘This is an unacceptable situation on several fronts.  Householders either side of an empty property are forced to live next door to a deteriorating building. Empty dwellings deny the opportunity of a home to people in desperate housing need and. they increase pressure for building higher on brownfield sites such as Anglia Square and on developing new greenfield sites. Currently, the Council is ignoring the problem of empty homes and focusing its efforts on new builds rather than making better use of the existing housing stock.’