Empty houses?

There's been some press speculation about empty houses in Dundee. Cllr MacPherson suggests there are around 4000 and half of them are council or housing association houses.

Not so. 1,165 of these houses are zoned for demolition. These include six multis in Hilltown and parts of Whitfield and Mill o Mains. They also include, strangely, 179 houses used as temporary accommodation for homeless people and another 1,750 privately owned homes which are either lying empty or used as second homes.

All landlords have empty houses which are waiting repairs and relet. At the end of January the Council had 441. Compared to a housing stock of 13,500 houses that's not so bad. However, it's still not good enough and we are putting in a big shift to bring those numbers down. Housing associations have a modest 141.

There are another 384 empties for various reasons; I believe they are mostly in the private sector. Some are empty because the previous occupant has died, gone to jail or gone into full time residential care and the homes may be on sale. Some are mortgage repossessions, and some are under reconstruction.

So in Dundee the main problem with empty homes is in the private sector. We want to see these homes brought back into use. We support the Scottish Government's empty homes initiative. The credit crunch and long waiting lists for rented housing mean we can't afford empty homes in our city.

Very happy to make these figures available to Cllr MacPherson on request ...