Tameside was estimated to have had 557 homeless people in 2022, during any given night, half of whom were children. Homeless charity, Shelter, said this equated to one in 415 local people. At the same time, an independent survey revealed that the area had over 500 empty properties.
Retired estate agent, Stephen Gooderson, from Stalybridge, carried out the survey. His research of the general housing market led to the discovery of 700,000 properties across the UK that were either empty of derelict. The “ghost homes” discovered during his survey were properties that had been empty for a minimum of two years.
Homes can be empty for a number of reasons, including family disputes, planning permission problems, environmental or structural problems, financial difficulties, neglect or decay.
Local authorities have certain powers to deal with empty properties.
Tameside Council’s Housing Strategy 2021-26 discussed the borough’s problem with empty homes and acknowledged the need to improve housing supply by returning the homes to a habitable condition. It also identified the need for 720 additional wheelchair-friendly homes and 187 wheelchair-adapted properties.
Mr Gooderson summarised today’s housing market as “just totally broken” and said the problems with uninhabitable properties were “self made”. He said:
“The local authority has done absolutely nothing. The stock of empty houses has actually compounded since this strategy was released.
“Maybe they lack the appetite, staff or funding, but if the Government and local authority communicated, it would be more economical to bring these homes back into use than to house people in hotels.”
Mr Gooderson said that on two occasions he had attempted to discuss the possibility of the properties being available for use as emergency housing with Tameside Council, Manchester City Council and Jigsaw Homes. No reply was received.
In 2023, he and his wife helped 18 Ukrainian refugee families by sourcing 50 properties for which they paid the rent for a year. Two of their properties were rejected by Tameside Council because there was no lock on the bathroom door. Mr Gooderson was not impressed.
He said: “So let me get this right – you live in the Ukraine, you’ve just seen your neighbour’s house get blown up, tanks are coming down the street, you’re scared to death and somehow you manage to get out of the country and over to the UK, somebody provides you with a home, pays for the first 12 months of rent, puts you in touch with people who will help you get things organised, then the council rock up and what can they do for you? Well actually, they can evict you because there’s not a lock on the toilet door. A great contribution from the Council.”
He proposed two strategies to address the problem of homes lying empty – one involving investment from the public to build or buy new council homes, and another requiring government investment to provide grants for the conversion of upstairs spaces above commercial premises to social housing.