Hartlepool Borough Council will consider taking a ‘more aggressive’ approach to tackling derelict buildings and land in the area.
The local authority. in the north east of England, launched an investigation last year amid ‘significant concern’ over the 2,078 empty properties in the area in 2020.
This made up 4.7% of properties in Hartlepool – the fifth highest proportion in the UK at the time.
By September last year, the figure had fallen slightly to 1,960 properties, making up 4.4% of all dwellings.
The investigation by Hartlepool’s audit and governance committee found sites became vacant because of ownership disputes, properties not meeting housing standards, the cost of bringing them back into use, low demand, and difficulty letting.
Committee members said the Government should be lobbied to review legislation to make it easier to bring sites back into use.
They also recommended that the council uses more incentives, such as grants and loans, to help owners improve standards, as well as sanctions like prosecutions and compulsory purchase orders.
Hartlepool has also begun to explore increasing the council tax liability for empty residential properties, and wants to look at doing the same for commercial sites.
