🚨COUNCILS GET GREEN LIGHT TO GRAB EMPTY HOMES AFTER SIX MONTHS AND POCKET THE RENT
Angela Rayner’s latest housing wheeze lets local councils apply to seize day-to-day control of a private home left vacant for just six months, down from the current two years, then let it out for up to seven years. Ownership stays with the unlucky owner on paper, but the council takes the rent first, spends what it likes on repairs and its own management fees, and only hands over whatever crumbs remain. The owner still pays the mortgage. Exceptions exist for second homes, armed forces postings and probate, yet the bar for intervention is being lowered and the paperwork simplified so tribunals wave more cases through. Funny how a Housing Secretary with a Westminster base, a constituency place and a Hove flat never seems to worry the empty-homes inspectors will come calling on her.