Housing is one of our main priorities and we believe that having a decent home is a basic human right. Revising empty homes is an essential part of our housing strategy which we are developing to meet the ever-growing needs of our community.

In common with the Government, we recognise that each empty home is a wasted resource for the owners and developers. Getting empty property back into use is essential from our point of view because we are responsible for:

• providing homes for the homeless and
  
• supplying enough land and housing to meet estimated needs.

Reusing empty homes helps to reduce the need to develop the countryside and tackling empty and derelict property greatly improves the appearance of our towns and villages.

There are still a number of barriers to bringing empty property back into use and we have called on the Government to introduce measures to help in this task. In the meantime, we are:

• making more money and additional resources available to tackle empty and derelict homes
• introducing new measures through our housing assistance policy
• making the best use of the legal powers we have to tackle the problems we face and
• encouraging our partners to help us.

I hope that everyone with an interest in this subject will find our strategy useful and will do whatever they can to help.

Cllr Brian Copping Cabinet Member - Care and Support

Empty Property Strategy (.pdf)
Regulatory Reform Order (.pdf)
Fordham Report on Shepway (.pdf)
Shepway District Council - List of empty properties