Swindon councillors have called for more to be done after it was revealed more than 500 houses have been empty for over six months. Tory Roger Smith and Labour’s Paul Dixon have joined forces and will ask for more action to be taken, possibly going as far as making compulsory purchases, especially with homelessness in the borough on the rise. They suggest the responsibility for bringing back empty houses into use, which is spread across different areas of the council, be consolidated in the housing department. Here’s what you said on our Facebook page:

Ivan Jacobs: “But try and find a house to rent around the area and it’s a nightmare.”

Emma Beckett: “I rented and managed to save a deposit for my first flat, it meant having two jobs, never seeing friends, not being able to go out for nights out or dinner and no holidays but was so worth it.

“Have since sold that and bought a house. It can be done but just means working hard for a few years and having no life.”

Chloe S-Kennedy: “And yet you wanna build 6,800 more?”

Zoe Thomas: “We need to do more to get empty homes back on to the market.

“Nationally, there are enough empty buildings to provide homes for everyone who needs one yet we still have a housing shortage and are still planning to build thousands of homes on greenfield sites.

“The Ministry Of Defence has over 10,000 empty homes around the country, and yet, is planning to add more than 300 more to that statistic in Lyneham.”

Paul Fallows: “Compulsory Purchase Order them and then auction them off with caveats.”

Colin Bird: “People of my age when we were young the moto was if you can’t afford it you can’t have it.

“This made people save, work hard even having two jobs and doing without, this was the only was we achieved our goals.

“Seeing sights like this makes me sick.”

Rob Lowe: “If it’s privately-owned what’s it got to do with anyone else?

“Not like it’s one person buying loads of homes to stitch everyone else up.

“It belongs to someone so it’s there’s to do with as they please.”

Vicki Thomas: “This is a disgrace when there are people homeless.”

Mick O’Malley: “Surely if you own a house you can do what you like with it?

“What’s it got to do with Swindon Council?”

Johnson Alison: “I’ll take one and do it up myself.”

Angie Tucker: “Disgusting with so many needing a home.”

Elizabeth London: “I bet they all need a heating upgrade as well. Good luck Swindon Borough Council.”

Nigel Chalk: “I was supplying lists of long term vacant premises when I was a parish councillor 10 years ago, some of them are still empty.”

Amjad Qazi: “A house near me has been empty for 15 years. Trees overgrown into our garden and other issues.

“Something has to be done.”

Heather Ware: “There is one in Tenby close that has been reported but nothing’s being done. It’s an eyesore.”

Samie Wernham: “Clean them up and give a home to our veterans. They so deserve a home.”

Russell Holland: “It is difficult to enforce for legal reasons but this motion is another opportunity to seek to make progress.”

Luke Batten: “Honestly ridiculous. Housing is a basic survival necessity.

“If someone wants to hoard empty homes and reckons they can get away with it because a piece of paper says they own it, the laws supporting that paper need ripping up.

“People matter more than property portfolios.”

Agnieszka Tucker: “There should be more council housing available.

“There are many jobs in which you’d never earn enough to buy a property and renting is extremely expensive too.

“Council housing is essential.”