Wasted London is the New Journal’s investigative series about unused property and silent construction sites

A THREE-bedroom property in the Brookfield Estate in Dartmouth Park has stood empty for 18 months after a brother and sister moved out following their mother’s death.

At the same time, a two-bedroom flat in Walker House, Somers Town, has been vacant for seven months, while an entire block of low-rise flats in Goldington Crescent, also in Somers Town has been empty for two years.

The list of vacant council homes comes at a time of severe housing need, with even family-sized properties lying empty despite a shortage of affordable homes and thousands of people waiting for social housing across Camden.

A recent housing committee report said that there were currently 356 void council properties in the borough – homes owned by the council which are empty.

The report, published in June, said that 43 of these were in Camden Town, including 13 two-bedroom flats, eight three-bedroom flats and three four-bedroom flats standing empty.

“I worked tirelessly to support a brother and sister who lost their mum,” said Jane McWilliams, chair of the Kentish Town District Management Committee.

“And it took two years to fight for them to give up their three-bedroom home and get two one-bedroom flats.

“That’s a family home that two single people are living in, are desperately trying to get rid of it, and they’re having to fight to get rid of it. That is an appalling state of affairs because you’ve got families of five, six, seven people living in one-bedroom flats.”

She added: “I don’t think there is urgency in dealing with voids and they [the council] are only just starting to pick it up because of it repeatedly being raised by residents.

“We’ve got people sleeping on the streets and that property I mentioned is still empty.

“But when we’re talking about homes and people needing that, we have the biggest housing crisis we’ve had since the war. And they don’t listen.”

John Wood, chair of Camden Town DMC said: “We want to know why they are not turning these properties round fast enough. There are so many properties that are empty, Camden doesn’t even know what it owns.”

The council is seeking approval for a £59.8 million plan to bring in two contractors to repair and refurbish the empty council homes.

One contract will be for the north of the borough and one for the south. Mr Wood said: “We’ve got in-house engineers and electricians in Camden. Why pay a contractor a horrendous amount of money to do this when they’ve actually got staff to do it themselves?”

A Camden Council spokesperson said: “Camden manages one of the largest social housing stocks in the country, and some level of temporarily empty homes is normal as they are refurbished and brought up to a high standard for new tenants. We currently have around 330 voids, representing just 1.5 per cent of our 23,000 homes for let.

“However, we recognise how important these properties are to residents in need of decent, affordable housing. Almost half of new council lettings come from existing tenants and these properties will help residents move to homes that better meet their needs as families grow, while freeing up homes for others on our waiting list.”

They added: “Void refurbishments require specialist trades and the flexibility to respond to changing levels of demand.

“This is a challenge we want to address head on as we focus on further improving the time in which voids are re-let.

“The proposed procurement will provide the additional capacity and resilience needed to meet this demand, helping us to complete works more quickly, deliver better value for money and ultimately, better outcomes for Camden families.”

Wasted London

ARE you aware of housing which has been left empty for an extended period of time?

It could be social housing – or even private flats bought as second homes which are hardly ever used.

The same goes for wasted commercial units that stand empty for years.

If you have information which could help our Wasted London series, contact reporter Caitlin Maskell on 0207 419 9000 or email caitlin@camdennewjournal.co.uk