Council to use compulsory purchase order powers to ease social housing crisis

Oldham Council is considering using compulsory purchase order powers in a bid to ease its social housing crisis.

Council leader, Cllr Arooj Shah, has revealed the proposal as part of a raft of measures to persuade landlords to free up vacant properties in the town that could be used to house families desperate for a home.

Cllr Shah said: “More than 7,000 people are currently on Oldham’s housing register waiting for a social home, with more applying every week. Demand already far outstrips supply – simply put, there aren’t enough social and affordable homes to go round.”

She added: “Britain’s cost-of-living crisis has also further exacerbated the housing crisis in Oldham and across Greater Manchester.

“Working families on low to middle incomes are struggling to afford their own home. Moving back-in with mum and dad is one of the only options for many, leading to overcrowding and other challenges – and for those in rental properties, rising evictions, rent arrears and the spectre of homelessness are very real.”

She said: “With a lack of affordable properties, sky-rocketing rents and mortgage rates, landlords who aren’t maintaining quality homes, and red tape and planning obstacles preventing the right new homes being built in the right places, the situation is worsening day-by-day.”

She revealed the council has tried a range of measures to increase its social housing stock, such as massively ramping up council tax levies on some properties. She said there are currently 1,000 empty properties in the borough.

Cllr Shah said: “We have tried to ‘encourage’ owners of empty homes to get them occupied by doubling, tripling and sometimes even quadrupling the council tax on a vacant property, but still too many remain empty.

“We are now looking at using compulsory purchase powers to acquire long term empty homes in Oldham and exploring how some of those properties could be transformed into dedicated temporary accommodation, to ensure we can meet the rising need.”

This is part of the council’s local response to what is a national crisis, she said.

She added: “Right now, in Oldham, almost 700 children are ‘living’ in emergency accommodation. Some of them have never known a home of their own, moving from temporary address to temporary address. That is heartbreaking.

“On a recent visit to an affordable housing project in Hathershaw, I heard first hand from a mum who had been living without a home for three years.

“She explained how her new home – a safe place to live – has completely changed her life and the future for her daughter. This is the difference fixing the housing crisis can make.”

A range of new measures agreed by the council to help ease the housing problem include:

• Prioritising access to housing support for all residents.
• Accelerating house building.
• Securing more temporary homes to meet the growing need for emergency accommodation.

Cllr Shah said: “In February, we held a Housing Roundtable, bringing together builders, developers and partners from across the private and social housing sectors to agree how we can work together to get more homes built and, importantly, improve the standard of existing homes.

“This was a really important event which put firm plans in place to find real solutions to the housing crisis. Following the roundtable, I was proud to announce 500 new social homes would be built in Oldham over the next five years, a great first step in the right direction.

“We are also looking to address housing needs in other projects the council is driving forward. Through our partnership with Muse to regenerate the town centre, 2,000 new homes will be built in the heart of Oldham, creating a brand new neighbourhood and vastly increasing the number of modern, quality homes available in our borough.”