Here we go again.... Tory led, Rochford District Council has got itself in a right confused state over it's latest 'fad' - we've witnessed previously how it's not so good with the numbers but this is just another example of how the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. In January this year, it was 91 empty homes, today the Tory leader, Terence Cutmore - 400 homes, RDC press office says 220 homes. We're confused about just how many homes are empty and can't be confident RDC actually has a handle on how many are empty BEFORE launching this scheme!
Listen to the BBC Essex interview below with Leader of RDC talking to Ben & Sonia's breakfast listeners about the 400 empty homes!
The Lib Dems reported on this issue back in January 2018 as RDC has failed to use any of it's legal powers to bring the properties back into use. Now they want to use taxpayers money to offer landlords £5000 in return for;
3.3.6.2 All applicants who are awarded a max grant of £5,000, will be required to provide tenancy nomination rights to the council for a period of 2 years following completion of all works necessary to rectify any Category 1 and high Category 2 Hazards. A property which fails to rectify such identified hazards and therefore cannot be occupied as a result; will not be eligible for a grant.
3.3.6.3 Rent levels will normally be restricted to an amount that can be met by the Housing Benefit Local Housing allowance rate.
It will be interesting to see if RDC will achieve anything this time around as it had just a 2% success rate last time it tried a cash incentive.