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Published: 26 March 2010
by JAMIE WELHAM

CITY Hall is failing to fill hundreds of empty council houses despite a massive waiting list for properties, new government figures have revealed.

In the 12 months between April 2008 and April 2009, just four properties became occupied out of the 411 lying empty across the borough.

It comes as Westminster faces one of the biggest overcrowding problems in the capital, with more than 1,000 families living in cramped conditions, and 10,000 people waiting for a council house.

The situation has been branded a “scandal” by MP Karen Buck a year on from a West End Extra report that revealed entire blocks standing empty; reminiscent of the Baltimore “lock-ups” depicted in US television series The Wire.

It is costing housing chiefs a fortune in lost rents – with each home worth around £5,000 a year. The council claims the average turnaround time for an empty property is 25 days – and the overall figure is misleading because it merely reflects the high turnover of council tenants. It says the time taken for repairs to what are often crumbling Victorian terraces accounts for the situation and that the reality is that there are relatively few long-term vacant properties.

Private landlords have been equally sluggish. In 2004 there were 3,974 privately owned vacant properties in Westminster and by 2009 this was largely unchanged, with the figure standing at 3,968. Housing markets, speculators and overseas landlords have all been blamed.

Ms Buck, the Labour MP for Regent’s Park and Kensington North, said: “Of course, there are some houses that are empty for a short time, but it’s simply not true to say they can all be accounted for by this. 

“Walk around Queen’s Park and Harrow Road and there are dozens that have been left empty for years. At a time when there is an acute housing problem in Westminster, ­people on the waiting list are absolutely enraged that there are all these boarded-up ­houses. It is a constant grievance for people in North Westminster. The council should be treating this as a matter of urgency to bring them back [into use]. There is no excuse as far as I’m concerned.”

Councillor Philippa Roe, City Hall’s cabinet member for housing, said: “It is totally incorrect to say that only a handful of properties have been restored in a year. 

“Every year, hundreds of properties become empty for a variety of reasons such as ­people leaving Westminster or being transferred to another home and CityWest Homes turn around the vast majority of properties in 25 days while they carry out repairs.

“If you look beyond these figures, what we actually have is 33 long-term empty properties. They suffer from structural and subsidence problems or are being converted to ease the major overcrowding problem we have.

Meanwhile, as a project to build 500 new affordable homes in the borough got under way this week, the homelessness charity Shelter published figures showing Westminster is lagging dramatically behind other areas in meeting its targets. 

Of more than 5,000 affordable homes housing experts say are needed in Westminster, just 200 have been delivered over the past three years, giving it the distinction of being the second worst performing borough in the capital after Kensington and Chelsea.

The council disputes Shelter’s figures, saying they are out of date and that the real total should stand at 723 affordable homes over the past two years.

Builders started work on the Warwick estate in Paddington as part of the £93million initiative which is being hailed as the biggest affordable new-build project in central London since the 1970s.

It comes 25 years after the last estate was built by the council in Odhams Walk, Covent Garden in 1985.

Opposition leaders say it is little more than a token gesture. A third of the properties will be sold on the open market and another third have been reserved for shared ownership schemes and key workers.

Councillor Philippa Roe, Westminster Council’s cabinet member for housing, said: “Shelter is using old data which does not reflect how many affordable homes have been delivered in Westminster in the last year. 

“Through this £93m initiative we plan to build an additional 500 new homes that will help many families in housing need.”

There are currently 10 “brownfield” locations in­volved in the programme for which the council was awarded £36m by the Homes and Community Agency.