Decision details

Buying this empty property enabled it to be brought back into residential use and to meet one of the ‘Fair and Inclusive’ policy objectives of the City Council’s Corporate Strategy 2018-2023 and Corporate Business Plan 2018/19 to make sure that 2,000 new homes (800 affordable) are built in Bristol each year by 2020. There are a number of actions to achieve this, one of which is to: ‘bring empty private properties back into use, through both informal negotiations with owners and formal enforcement when required’. The purchase of this property will also feed into the Bristol Housing Strategy 2016-2020 and the Private Housing Policy Statement objective of reducing empty properties and provide ‘well designed, quality homes that are affordable, sustainable and suitable for people’s needs’. Paragraph 51 of the National Planning Policy Framework states that local authorities should identify and bring back into residential us empty housing in line with local housing and empty homes strategies and where appropriate acquire properties under compulsory purchase powers.

Approval to purchase by agreement with the owner a long term empty property (6 Lancaster St, Barton Hill, Bristol BS5 9QL). Section 17 of the Housing Act 1985.

Option 1 -
The only other option would be not to agree to voluntary purchase which would have meant that the property would have continued to remain empty and the Council would have had to proceed to the making of a Compulsory Purchase Order. This would have resulted in additional costs to the Council.
Option 2 -
Option 3 -