ECHO COMMENT: Council has every right to kick out Cheltenham's absent landlords
AN Englishman’s home is his castle. Or is it?
Cheltenham Borough Council is throwing down the gauntlet to absentee landlords and telling them to get their houses in order.
If they don’t improve the state of the properties and ensure they are available to rent, the council will get tough.
The houses could be compulsorily purchased or even sold direct to someone else.
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Your first thought may be that the council is going way beyond its role here. If someone has invested in a property at whatever date in the past and chooses not to live there - or to allow someone else to live there - why is that the council’s business?
It is for two very good reasons - the sheer number of empty properties in the town and the misery that they can bring to communities.
On the first point, there are currently more than 340 privately-owned homes that have been left empty long-term. That is a disgrace at a time when the pressure for housing is so great that thousands of new homes need to be built on open spaces across the county.
Bear in mind the fact that the council is already bringing an estimated 100 homes back into use each year. Its new scheme would provide the resources to add another 20-plus homes to the figure annually.
And then there is the human impact of empty houses. They inevitably attract vandals - and occasionally squatters - who damage not only the individual houses but the entire atmosphere around them.
The council also knows that by bringing empty homes back into use it means it qualifies for more Government cash. It has every incentive to make this crackdown work.
If this upsets absent landlords then so be it. They may be set to lose out financially in the long run but, if they cared at all about the town, they wouldn’t be in this position in the first place.
Patience
IT’S difficult to know what is the most impressive thing about Ron Savory’s models.
Is it the incredible patience required in putting them together with just matchsticks and glue, or the accuracy of the finished items?
Either way, Tower Bridge is a notable addition to Ron’s creations. He is a credit to himself and his generation.
5 Comments
by Laplands
Friday, March 08 2013, 7:57PM
“OK CBC, you have made a bold statement. What about the prefab,s that are opposite budgens garage on prestbury road .......... you know the ones that back onto Cheltenham town football club, the same ones that a woman moved into and actually repaired it at her own cost because she was homeless and had the gas and electric reconnected. Then you kicked her out because you said they were unsafe to live in. Those prefabs are still empty more than 6yrs after this incident. So my message to CBC is get your own house in order before being a bully and threatening to take peoples investments off them. If you were to concentrate on running this town and reducing the cost of living here instead of ripping people off with council taxes that you hide 11 million in Icelandic bank accounts that went bust. If you can afford to stash away OUR money you can afford to do something beneficial with it like reduce council tax and stop ripping car owners off with all these little mushroom pods popping up ........ you know the ones parking metre,s the same ones you make £50,000 a year from by robbing people who don't have the exact amount of change. CBC i would,nt give you a pot to P*ss in because you would pobably miss that. Useless idiotic over paid wannabe,s.”
by cheltenham20
Friday, March 08 2013, 5:09PM
“Let me say this CBC, if i had an empty property, i would think its none of your buisness but my own, and can honestly say you would never steal my property to allocate to some illegal immigrant, you would have to rebuild it,after ive demolished it and then keep an eye on the building process as i would definnetly trash it at every oppurtunity... Some years ago this council compulusory purchased a mans property in Wymans Brook, because the garden was full of rubbish and overgrown, then spent thousands of pounds of work on it and then gave it to a person who had never done a days work in is life... There's a simple way about this, regards empty property's..
When purchasing a property, if its not for their own personel use then a simple clause in the land registry will put an end to buying property to leave empty, people buy property and put into another name so that there will be no capital gains to be paid when sold some time later,. people don't get any interest on their money these days, so buying a property will always keep your savings up to date........ CBC go and educate councilor Driver, then the rest of you go on a refresher caurse.....”
by sam5064
Friday, March 08 2013, 1:41PM
“Does the editor suggest that the solution to the current housing crisis, would be to employ Ron Savory to construct new homes from matchsticks?”
by AndyPrestbury
Friday, March 08 2013, 11:01AM
“Anyone using the Axiom Centre yet?”
by buffersyeoman
Friday, March 08 2013, 9:59AM
“So now the Editor is a legal beagle!
Can I be so bold as to suggest that you concentrate on be an editor and try to bring the Echo up to scratch rather than trying to impose your own take on empty properties.
I do not own such a property, but your reasons given in the text do not stand within the current legislation. No doubt there is similar accommodation to be had in Clarence Parade.”