The power of a gentle prod

Three-quarters of a million homes are empty in England. At the moment there are only two ways for local people to do something about problem empty homes. They can often ring a hotline run by their local council, or if they are in London, the empty property hotline run by the Empty Homes Agency itself, to report such a property.

But, under the 1980 Planning and Housing Act, local people are also empowered to report an empty publicly owned property and get action taken on it – a little-known right to order disposal of empty public property. This is called a public request ordering disposal, or PROD.

Unfortunately, this law excludes Ministry of Defence and NHS property, which would be the largest contenders for such action, and there is a strong argument to extend the power of PROD to all long-term, publicly owned, empty property, so that local people can deal with the eyesores blighting their community.

Of course, it also excludes privately owned property and, as eight out of 10 empty homes are in the private sector, is there not also an argument to extend the PROD to these wasted homes, in areas of high demand at least? The private PROD could give local people the right to report a private property that had been standing empty for a long time. The council would then serve the PROD on the owner, who would be able to respond by:

• using the property themselves
  
• letting the property
  
• selling the property, either through an agent or directly to the person exercising the PROD. The PROD might include the option for the person making the request to make an offer for the property that the owner could consider
  
• providing a clear and justifiable reason why it needs to stay empty in the short term, such as redevelopment. Usually, the local authority would expect a planning application to be made to justify this excuse. The recipient of the PROD would have a specific period of time to achieve a resolution to the blight caused by the property in their ownership. This timetable would be determined by the council and would depend on local circumstances.

If a satisfactory solution were not achieved within the set timetable, the local authority would have the ability to step in and to dispose of the property on behalf of the owner. This could involve accepting any original offer made by the person initiating the PROD, or it could mean the authority acting as the owner's agent in a sale through an agency. The local authority would be able to recover its costs from the sale proceeds.

The attractive element of a private PROD is that it provides a catalyst for action on empty homes by getting more people involved and giving them the feeling that, at last, they can do something. It is a community solution to a community problem and fits comfortably with the ethos of the Communities Plan.

The vast majority of local authorities have empty property officers, but often this is just one person with a huge challenge on their hands. Private PRODs could channel information to the empty property officer.

Let's allow the public the power to do something about the thousands of properties lying neglected. At a time of such housing need in parts of our country, a gentle prod may be all that is required.

Jonathan Ellis will be speaking on PRODs at fringe meetings at the Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat party conferences