On Air Now

This is the Coast

Midnight - 6:00am

  • 01723 336444

Now Playing

North Yorkshire Council Seeks To Reduce Empty Homes But Won't Compromise Quality

The local authority says the average time a property is empty between tenants is around five months.

Nick Harne is North Yorkshire Council's Corporate Director for Community Development:

" March was 147 days. But just to stress, that's the average time. And what we're doing is a piece of work to break these down into three different categories of minor middling works and major works. And we're inheriting a significant number of what we'd call major work requirement properties.

"We don't want to re-let these in the state that we're inheriting them in. In future and over time, capital programs and investment in these properties will bring void times down, but currently because of the level of work we're doing on them the time takes quite a while. The actual overall number of voids though is coming down month by month."

Councillor Simon Myers agrees the local authority will not let substandard housing:

"There have been suggestions to me from some members of this authority that we shouldn't do any of this, and that it's more important that we just let them, even though we regard them as substandard. I can give an absolute commitment that this council will not let substandard property to new tenants. Our duty is to provide decent housing for people, not the sort of housing that causes the tragedies that we've seen in other authorities. So our commitment is to upgrade our housing to decent home standards."

Did you find this article useful?

This is the Coast is committed to providing a daily local news service for the Yorkshire Coast. We are a small locally owned and operated business which employs professional journalists and reporters. We do not receive any public funding or grants and we are entirely funded by our local commercial operations. We enjoy fabulous support from local businesses who work with us on their advertising and marketing campaigns, but the cost of providing high quality, well researched, fact checked local news coverage is significant.

If you appreciate what This is the Coast does, and would like to help support our journalism, please consider supporting us on a monthly basis today.

A small contribution from all our readers would really help support independent journalism for the Yorkshire Coast.

More from Yorkshire Coast News

Comments

Add a comment

Log in to the club or enter your details below.

Follow Us

Get Our Apps

Our Apps are now available for iOS, Android and Smart Speakers.

  • Available on the App Store
  • Available on Google Play
  • Just ask Amazon Alexa
  • Available on Roku

Today's Weather

  • Scarborough

    Sunny intervals

    High: 21°C | Low: 14°C

  • Filey

    Sunny intervals

    High: 21°C | Low: 14°C

  • Whitby

    Sunny intervals

    High: 21°C | Low: 13°C

  • Bridlington

    Sunny intervals

    High: 20°C | Low: 14°C

  • Hornsea

    Sunny intervals

    High: 20°C | Low: 15°C

  • Driffield

    Sunny intervals

    High: 21°C | Low: 14°C

News