A man talks on the phone while walking in an empty street in the financial district, known as The City, in London, on Dec. 13, 2021. Alberto Pezzali/AP Photo
The British government plans to give English councils stronger powers to seize privately owned homes left empty for six months.
Housing Secretary Angela Rayner announced the change on Sunday at Labour’s conference.
Rayner told Sky News that the empty homes management orders “will enable councils to house people in properties that are empty dwellings at the moment.”
Labour framed the policy as a refusal to “sit back and allow empty dwellings to be left to rot,” in a Sept. 27 post on X.
Labour MP Emily Thornberry welcomed the move and said in a Sept. 27 post on X: “If you leave a home empty long-term in the middle of a housing crisis, it should be seized.”
The changes mean reforms to Empty Dwelling Management Orders (EDMOs). These allow councils to take over the management of long-term empty homes and return them to occupation for up to seven years while ownership remains with the property owner.
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The changes will reduce from two years to six months the period a property must be empty before it becomes eligible for an EDMO.
The reforms mean councils face fewer hurdles to seize an empty home. For example, the council won’t have to now produce evidence that the site is causing anti-social behavior or community support for intervention.
“The government is also exploring further changes to strengthen the EDMO regime and support councils to use the powers more effectively,” the government said in a Sept. 28 statement.
In the United States, the government cannot legally seize private empty houses to house people as the Fifth Amendment in the U.S. Constitution protects private property from government seizure. The government as a result cannot force owners to let people live in empty private homes.
Labour has called Britain’s housing shortage a “crisis” and pledged to build 1.5 million new homes in England over five years in its manifesto before it won the general election in 2024. Housing is a devolved matter in Britain, and is handled separately by Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.
However, it recently said that this target will not be met.
There is only a “slim chance” the government will meet its target by the next election, Rayner told the BBC on Sept 13.
The government has put the private sector under closer state control.
For example, Labour’s Renters’ Rights Act came into force last year. This is legislation that the Conservatives put forward in the last Parliament.
Labour’s law abolishes “section 21 orders” which means that landlords can no longer evict a tenant without giving a legal reason. It also created a mandatory national Private Rented Sector Database of all private landlords and the homes they let as well as new rules meaning new tenants cannot be asked to pay more than the advertised price.
Members of Reform UK, the party led by Nigel Farage that is polling just behind Labour at 23 percent, criticized plans to seize privately owned homes.
Reform politician Cristiana Emsley said in a Sept. 27 post on X that “the parallels with communism are becoming harder and harder to ignore.”
