This in from the council, in their own words.
The number of properties has reduced from nearly 2600 in October 2013 to just over 1600 in April this year.
This reduction means around two per cent of the Island’s housing stock is now empty, which is well under the government’s target of 3.7 per cent.
Councillor Steve Stubbings is Executive member for community well-being and said:
“Empty properties can be a blight on the landscape and it is important that this problem is tackled, not only to improve the local area but to also provide more housing options for residents.
“The council has used a variety of methods to achieve the reduction, such as providing more officer resources and improving the IT systems departments use to identify empty homes.
“We will be employing two further officers to assist with reducing the number of empty homes in the coming months and we are confident the number of vacant properties will fall even further this year.”
When a property is identified as being empty for a long term period, the council first contacts and works with the registered owner on options for bringing it back into use. Should this not work, the council can use legal enforcement powers although this is a last resort.
Most of the properties brought back into use since October have been through the council working with the registered owners.
