At the meeting of the Community, Health and Housing Committee on 18^thSeptember 2017 the draft Empty Homes Strategy was adopted by Members.

Officers were instructed to report back to subsequent meetings to provide information on progress and performance indicators regarding empty homes.

Mr Carter made a presentation to Members on Empty Homes KPI’s.

A motion was MOVED by Cllr Hossack and SECONDED by Cllr Poppy to approve the recommendations in the report, subject to two additional recommendations to state:-

2.4.  That Brentwood Borough Council instigates dialogue with Essex    Housing Officers Group (Environmental) to adopt a Empty Homes Task Force for Essex.

2.5  That Brentwood Borough Council investigates the possibility of increasing the Empty Homes premium to an additional 100% over standard Council Tax as mentioned in the Government Budget, this is subject to approval of the Policy, Project and Resource Committee.

A vote was taken by a show of hands and it was RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY that: 

1.    Members note the contents of the report and actions taken to deal

with empty homes.

2.    Members instruct officers to prioritise properties for action to

concentrate efforts on identified locations.

3.    Officers are instructed to verify data provided to inform Government Empty Home statistics and to liaise with Basildon DC Billing & Benefits Team.

4. That Brentwood Borough Council instigates dialogue with Essex    Housing Officers Group (Environmental) to adopt a Empty Homes Task Force for Essex.

5.That Brentwood Borough Council investigate the possibility of  increasing  the Empty Homes premium to an addition 100% over standard Council Tax as mentioned in the Government Budget, this is subject to approval of the Policy, Project and Resource Committee.

Reasons for Recommendation

To ensure that effective action was taken to reduce the number of empty homes in the Borough within existing resources where possible.