COUNCIL leaders in Liverpool are refusing to use laws to tackle the scandal of “ghost houses” left to rot by private landlords – despite the numbers being on the rise.
They have branded empty dwelling management orders (EDMOs) – designed to kick out a landlord refusing to co-operate – as “expensive and cumbersome”.
The city council’s view appears to be shared by many other local authorities. Just 27 properties have been refurbished across England in that way, in three-and-a-half years.
But new figures have revealed there were 14,459 empty homes in Liverpool last year, of which 8,358 were privately-owned and vacant for more than six months.
The number is higher than in 2005 (14,063), but still considerably lower than when the total peaked at the start of the decade (18,734).
Across Merseyside, North Cheshire and West Lancashire, there were a total of 37,700 “ghost homes” in 2008, including 17,860 empty for more than six months and privately-owned.
Across the UK, the number of empty homes has hit 1m – a statistic described as “shocking” by homelessness charities.
Kay Boycott, Shelter’s director of policy, said: “More money needs to be made available to give local authorities the manpower to make contact with the owners of empty properties, to start getting these homes back into use.
“They have the legal powers to bring long-term empty homes back into use, but don’t have the resources to enforce these powers.”
