Among the eye-catching announcements from the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool is a proposal to allow councils to seize privately owned homes. Matthew Pennycook, the Housing Minister, tweets: ‘It’s not a silver bullet, but bringing more empty homes back into use can help solve the housing crisis. Today, we’re announcing strengthened powers for councils to take control of long-term empty homes and use them to house families in need.’
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government press release offers a little more detail. It explains that the change means that Empty Dwelling Management Orders can be applied after a property is empty for six months rather than two years.
The merest whiff that the British government does not regard private property as sacrosanct is very dangerous
What neither Pennycook nor his Ministry’s press release mentions is how seldom Empty Dwelling Management Orders (EDMO) are used. The Justice Minister Sarah Sackman was asked a Parliamentary Question about them last year. She gave figures for the ‘receipts’ (applications) received by the courts for EDMOs annually. An application does not mean they were granted. But in any case, it was nil for 2023/24, nil for 2022/23 and only three for 2021/22.
The announcement about a property only needing to be empty for six months to be subject to an EDMO means the position goes back to what it was from 2006 to 2012. The numbers were tiny then as well. In 2008, for instance, there were applications to the courts for three properties.
This is in the context of three-quarters of a million empty homes in England. A number which has, incidentally, increased since Labour came to power.
Pennycook’s remark that ‘it’s not a silver bullet’ looks rather understated, doesn’t it?
You catch more flies with honey than vinegar. The New Homes Bonus, introduced in the David Cameron era, was paid to councils to give them a financial incentive to allow more housing. It applied to empty homes brought back into use as well as newly built homes and proved effective. The number of empty homes fell. But the New Homes Bonus is now being scrapped.
What is particularly objectionable about the EDMOs is that, in theory, they could apply to properties in good repair. If the house next door to you has become a derelict eyesore, infested by rats and pigeons, then empowering the authorities to take action is more reasonable. Perhaps the owner is befuddled and has ignored all injunctions to buck up. We can reflect on John Stuart Mill’s distinction between self-regarding and other-regarding acts in how a property is maintained – or not maintained.
But if someone owns something and simply chooses not to use it for a certain period of time, how can it be justified for the state to take it? Technically, the state doesn’t take ownership of a property that is managed under an EDMO. But it is still a blatant denial of the right to private property. It is rather analogous to property being ‘requisitioned’ during the War – which was grudgingly accepted due to the nation’s survival being at stake.
I would be very surprised if the EDMO changes have any impact at all on the number of properties seized. It is really about ‘vibes’. Some populist class war stuff about bashing the rich by ‘taking back control’ of properties they don’t even use. But vibes have consequences. ‘Why Nations Fail’, by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson, gives a failure to secure property rights as the key answer. There might be a country which offers a good investment opportunity in terms of the prospect of a profit and a low level of taxation. But if there is a danger of your assets being confiscated, then you will look for a safer option. The merest whiff that the British government does not regard private property as sacrosanct is very dangerous.
Furthermore, why is private property singled out for this extreme sanction? The Housing Act 2004 is explicit. It says that the EDMO can only apply if the ‘the relevant proprietor is not a public sector body’.
Not that it would make much sense for a council to seize its own property. But we have 34,600 empty council homes in England. Why not introduce a trigger mechanism that if empty for more than six months they are to be sold at public auction? There could be an exception if they are in a block of flats due to be demolished to allow estate redevelopment.
There are another 55,000 empty homes owned by housing associations. It is disputed whether those should count as public sector or private sector. But a rule could be imposed on housing associations to sell off empty properties or lose any further taxpayer subsidies.
Then we have 9,400 Ministry of Defence Service Family Accommodation properties sitting vacant. Flogging those off with the proceeds going to help the Ukrainians with their drone production would seem a good idea.
It’s not just empty homes but other state property that could be converted into housing. There is a huge amount of surplus state land.
I take a particularly keen interest in empty municipal garages. Many could be replaced with rows of attractive cottages.
When I last investigated, via Freedom of Information requests a couple of years ago, one of the worst culprits was Greenwich Council, with 2,251 empty garages out of a total stock of 3,588. Matthew Pennycook is not only the Housing Minister but also the Labour MP for Greenwich and Woolwich. Why not issue an order that these garages be sold and that, where viable, permission be granted to replace them with homes?
Let Pennycook first cast out the beam out of his own eye before he casts out the mote out of the eye of others.
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