Number of empty council homes in West Lothian 'lowest in two years'
West Lothian has its lowest number of empty council homes for two years thanks to a team set up in the autumn to tackle a backlog from the Covid lockdown.
The backlog of houses needing refurbishment - known as voids - is down by a quarter.
Councillors heard this week that the bulk of homes vacated come back needing thousands of pounds spent on them, with costs sometimes difficult to recoup except through debt recovery agencies.
Of three categories, almost 50% of homes returned to the council are in 'C' class the worst, with an average £10,000 worth of work needed to make them habitable again.
Grant Taylor, Building Services Manager told councillors on the Housing Services Policy Development and Scrutiny Panel (PDSP), the formation of a central team to deal with empty homes in all wards had made a big difference in helping to reduce the amount of time homes were out of use.
In the last year 1,348 properties were let across the county, 1,537 refurbishments were completed by Building Services and 1,346 new void properties were retired to the council.
On average 30 properties a week are being refurbished by Building Services and, in March this year, there were 100 fewer empty homes than in April last year.
The creation of one team to deal with all void homes has improved engagement with contractors and made it simpler to deal with one utility supplier, rather than dealing with the issue on a war by ward basis.
The team was created in response to a backlog in repairs and a growing number of homes lying empty for long periods, sometimes for half the year.
The backlog began to increase during the Covid pandemic, with councillors in all wards seeing their in-boxes stuffed with complaints about the number of empty homes at a time when demand for council housing was surging.
Mr Taylor said the turnaround had been achieved at a time when the number of houses in the worst condition had been climbing. This increased the amount of time spent on bringing the homes back up to standard.
Housing officers cite societal changes and problems such as addiction and hoarding among some of the issues they face in dealing with some tenants.
In 2021 there were 170 C class void homes- 27% of all voids across all nine council wards. By last year that number had climbed to 358, or 46% of all voids.
Last year the Bathgate ward alone had 138 void homes - 82 C class and 56 B class, which need around £4,500 spent to bring up to standard. There were none in A class- which need only around £1,500 spent to return to let.
Mr Taylor presented photographs to a meeting of the committee in December which showed befouled bathrooms, damaged filthy kitchens, and living rooms piled high with rubbish.
He said there had been some improvements but he added: 'we are still seeing a similar amount of work that needs to be done to bring the homes up to habitable standards. There's the repairs costs but a rental loss too so when you add the two together it is obviously well over the repair costs.'
Chairing the meeting, Councillor George Paul said: ' These tenants that leave properties in these conditions, how is the recharge process affecting them, how do we recoup the costs?
Mr Taylor said that rechargeable items were identified at the void point and those costs added to a service account managed by the council's finance team. The process of recovery of costs then goes to a third party.
Councillor David Russell asked: 'Is there any consequence for people who leave properties in this condition for example if they don't engage would they be excluded from getting a tenancy until they did?
Alison Smith, housing management and community safety officer said the council had a responsibility to rehouse people that come forward.
She said: 'We will have information about previous history and try to recoup charges. They may go out of the system for many months or years. However, we cannot bar people from the housing list.'
Mrs Smith added that sitting tenants could be taken through a legal route similar to that for non payment of rent.
Head of Housing Julie Whitelaw said: ' With regards to consequences I would say that we would follow a debt recovery process and the normal debt recovery processes and tools available to us would be followed on all occasions.'
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