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WHITE FLIGHT CREATING GHOST TOWNS?

One in every 20 homes in Stoke-on-Trent is lying empty - giving the city the worst vacancy rate in the Midlands. Latest statistics show 5,438 homes - just under five per cent of the city's housing stock - were unoccupied in 2004.

Almost 5,000 of these empty houses were owned by private landlords who are failing to rent out their properties. Hundreds more were council houses lying empty or properties owned by housing associations.

Now the Government is trying to prevent the decline of communities and the creation of ghettos where no-one wants to live by giving councils the power to take over empty homes if they remain unoccupied for more than six months. Of the thousands of homes left unoccupied in 2004, more than half were empty for more than six months.

Officials working for Government agency Renew North Staffordshire - the group charged with overseeing the £2.3 billion regeneration of the region's housing stocks - today said they were committed to solving Stoke-on-Trent's housing problems. Renew director Hardial Bhogal said: "Figures like this are the reason that Renew North Staffordshire exists.

"A great deal of research has been done into the problem of empty houses and low demand in North Staffordshire. We have a clear strategy for dealing with it. That has been rewarded with £30 million Government funding for 2004-06 and a 15 year commitment to substantial further funding.

"We will renovate homes, we will build new homes and we will clear houses that are beyond repair.

"The standard of private-rented homes is being improved through the Stoke-on-Trent landlords accreditation scheme. We are working with partners including the councils and the North Staffordshire Regeneration Zone to create new and better-paid jobs and make Stoke-on-Trent a desirable place to live."

The city's elected mayor, Mark Meredith, pictured right, said the council were working hard with partners to improve the situation. He said: "It's not a surprise because the Government have prioritised Stoke-on-Trent as one of the nine pathfinder regions in the country.

"The council is working in partnership with Renew and the Government to tackle this particular problem and are investing a lot of money.

"The problem will be worse in some areas when compared to others. Part of the reason is the historic decline in some parts of the city. These will be the areas that gain most from Government intervention and money." (What does this gobblygook mean?)

In response to the crisis, the Government has revealed a new Empty Dwelling Management Order (EDMO) is being introduced to fill 'ghost homes' destroying local economies. EDMOs will enable councils to take over temporary management of longer term unoccupied houses and flats so they can be let out to tenants.

This would mean the Staffordshire and Cheshire properties being left empty by their private landlord could be effectively repossessed. Properties would, however, still be officially owned by the previous landlords and could revert back to their owners' control on an agreed date, or sooner if the owner required.

EDMOs are included in the Housing Act 2004, and are likely to be put intoforce by the end of the year. The Government has launched a consultation exercise giving people a chance to comment on its EDMOs.

In Newcastle Borough 1,052 homes stood empty, while in the Staffordshire Moorlands 1,081 properties were unoccupied. A spokesman for Stoke-on-Trent City Council said: "The Government is currently consulting - until mid October - on how Empty Dwelling Management Orders (EDMOs) will work ."

Once this is completed, the council will develop its policies further.
emptyhouses

Once a thriving town - now a ghost area

Nationalist Alliance - This is symptomatic of what is happening all over the country. Why are large parts of our inner cities either looking likes bomb sites or are blighted with houses standing empty? Look at the answers in the artcile above - not one of them touches on the real answer - that White Britons and fleeing the inner cities!