LIVERPOOL City Council is being forced to sell properties in a Conservation Area after being accused of neglecting the housing stock and allowing it to fall into squalor.
The situation in the Newsham Park area has became so desperate that the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Hazel Blears, has upheld her predecessor’s order, forcing the council to sell up.
It is the first time the government has been forced to act under a law known as Public Request Ordering Disposal for more than a decade.
The Empty Homes Agency, an independent charity, described the tale of how Prescot Road and Prescot Drive slid into a derelict state over a decade, as “one of the most dispiriting we have heard”.
Some houses had been purchased by the council and left empty and unmanaged descending into dereliction, and cCampaigners are claiming a famous victory.
Cllr Steve Radford, leader of the Liberal Party, said: “The fact the council dragged its heels for five years and then the Secretary of State compounded this neglect for a further 18 months, does not detract from this historic victory.
“We hope this will make the council wake up concerning its role as a landlord of mass neglect when its comes to derelict homes and land.”
Campaigner Jonathan Brown, from the Friends of Newsham Park, said: “We hope this can finally signal a new beginning for this criminally neglected part of the city – and set a precedent discouraging long-term land banking of good homes at public expense.”
David Ireland, chief executive of the Empty Homes Agency, said: “These houses are some of the most neglected we have seen. Allowing them to fall into such an appalling state is nothing less than a scandal.
“The houses are a dangerous invitation to adventurous children and petty criminals. Inside one of the houses, there was evidence of drug taking, and small fires having been lit on the floors.
“The potential risk to those entering the house including children was obvious. The absence of any form of management of these properties was, in my view, negligent.
“Cases like this are thankfully rare but, where public landlords fail to bring their empty homes back into use, it is right that the government should force their sale to someone who can manage them better.
“We hope this case will serve as a warning to other public sector landlords that there is a consequence to failing to bring their empty homes back into use.”
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In response, a city council spokesman said: “The problem here has been that nobody wanted to invest in these houses but as soon as we showed interest, the sharks gathered and wanted to buy.”
Cllr Frank Doran, assistant executive member neighbourhoods and housing, explained that the council had wanted to demolish the row and start again.
Their plans, he said, were to create a sympathetic new build which would not only suit the area but avoid the VAT inherent in refurbishment projects and save money through economies of scale. However, local opposition had vetoed this option and simply tracing the owners of the derelict buildings had taken many months, he said.
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