Cardiff Council has said that 83 empty properties in the city have been brought back into use since April 2021 with support through its empty homes policy. The council says that it has up to 300 properties in the city that have been highlighted as an issue, and "although the onus is on the private property owner to deal with these issues, council officers actively pursue them to ensure the properties can be brought back into use as quickly as possible."
Figures released in December 2021 found that there were more than 1,355 private sector homes which had been left empty for more than six months. Of the 1,355 long term empty homes, 340 were empty for more than two years, 132 for more than five years, and 53 for more than a decade.
In October last year, Cardiff Council announced the city was in the "middle of a crisis", with around 8,000 people on the waiting list for social housing, and demand increasing. The figures revealed that Roath was the ward with the most empty properties, with 166 as of April 2019. The Cathays ward, which includes the city centre, has the second highest with 140. This was followed by Grangetown with 123, and Riverside, including Pontcanna, with 110.
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Cardiff council revealed a new action plan in December last year to encourage, and if needed force, landlords not to leave their homes empty in the long term, with Cllr Lynda Thorne, cabinet member for housing and communities at Cardiff Council saying at the time that "we need a focus and some fresh policies which can help get these properties back in use, housing people and families.”
Speaking on the empty homes policy back in December last year, Cllr Thorne said that the council had worked with the Welsh Government to develop an action plan outlining the assistance that can be offered to owners to encourage them to bring properties - which have been empty for longer than six months - back into use.
The policy also set out the enforcement tools that are available where advice and assistance fails. A number of incentives - including loans from the council for renovation, a leasing scheme run by the council and United Welsh housing association, and the option for the council or Taff housing association to purchase empty homes - are used to encourage property owners to bring empty homes back into use. Advice and assistance is also on offer to landlords.
If the incentives don’t work, the council has a range of enforcement options for empty homes, including compulsory purchase orders, where the owner is forced to sell the home to the council, who will then use it as either council housing or sell it on to a new owner. Other powers include forcing action on problems like overgrown gardens and rodents.
Cllr Thorne said: "Empty properties are caused through a variety of reasons, whether they have been inherited in the state that they are in, the owner cannot afford to fix the problems, or the owner could be living abroad or in long term care, with the property left vacant for a significant period of time allowing it to go into a state of disrepair.
"On a case-by-case basis, officers from the Shared Regulatory Service provide advice and possible funding opportunities to property owners. When this is not possible, and property owners refuse to engage with us, we do have enforcement powers available, including the use of compulsory purchase orders when all other avenues have been exhausted and there is compelling reason, in the public interest to do so.
"Bringing private properties back into use is mainly market driven, as if the value of the property is increasing, there is more incentive for the owner to correct the problems, so that the property can be sold on the open market. For property owners that are ‘land banking', other powers are also available which allows the council to charge 150% council tax on these properties, if they are unfurnished and vacant for over 12 months, as an added incentive on the owner to rectify the issues.
"Our advice to those who own vacant property and don't know what to do with it, please contact the Shared Regulatory Services on 0300 1236696, so they can provide advice and assistance, and together, we can bring these properties back into use, so they are not a blight on the landscape."
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