Labour-run council plots to seize 11,000 empty homes
Is your council seeking to confiscate your home? Get in touch: money@telegraph.co.uk.
A central London council is plotting to seize control of thousands of empty homes and use them to shelter homeless families.
Labour-run Westminster council has urged the Government to relax rules that allow local authorities to confiscate empty properties from two years to six months.
The power, known as an empty dwelling management order (EDMO), was earmarked for reform by Angela Rayner, the housing secretary, in a policy announcement in December.
Adam Hug, the leader of Westminster council, described the two-year rule as 'extremely limited', and said that the local authority's 11,000 empty properties could be used to tackle the borough's housing crisis.
He said: 'Investment properties in Westminster are nothing new, but we are past the crisis point in a world where this council has just agreed to spend £140m on temporary accommodation to try and contain our housing lists.'
But property experts warned the move was an 'attack' on foreign investors, and would drive down prices in the capital amid an already 'challenging market' triggered by Labour's non-dom reforms.
Britain's 700,000 vacant homes
Approximately a quarter of all residential properties in Westminster are not occupied by full-time by residents, according to the council. This amounts to roughly 34,400 homes.
Once short-term lets, migrant accommodation and other categories of housing are factored in, around 11,000 Westminster properties have been identified by the council as long-term vacant.
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