More money and staff have been put into bringing empty homes in the borough back into use.

Members of the audit committee, who were critical of the council's efforts a year ago, were told things have improved after the housing team was challenged to do more.

In the wake of a January 2020 report which highlighted serious shortcomings, head of housing Mike Ash was tasked with making a business case to cabinet member for housing Cathy Martyn to put more resources into solving the problem.

READ MORE: How council brought derelict property back into use

The committe heard more more money has been found to pay for half of a full-time officer dedicated to getting houses back into use.

Mr Ash said: “There are currently 94 homes that have been empty for two years or more in the Swindon Borough Council area and a further 605 properties that have been empty for between six months to two years.

“We have compared that to other councils in our family group. In October 2020 Milton Keynes had 813, Peterborough 909 empty houses, Telford & Wrekin 576, so Swindon’s 699 is not too bad.”

The extra staff member had been allocated and the housing team was getting help from planning officers to use powers under the Town and Country Planning Act to get owners to rectify houses falling into a poor state.

He said: “We have support and training from two planning officers which has highlighted the benefits of using Section 215 notices.

“The audit report definitely challenged us to look at options and finding the most effective remedy. We still think the most effective remedy is negotiation and persuasion and the extra staff we have will allow us to do more. For a non-statutory service , this is a good and proportionate response.”

One member, David Martyn asked why comparisons were made with authorities like Milton Keynes and Peterborough. Mr Ash told him the demographics and the mix of housing in those areas was similar to Swindon and made a useful comparison.

Coun Kevin Small was pleased to see an improvement but wanted the housing department to go further. “I think we could be more aggressive in our approach to empty properties.”

He said more could be done with compulsory purchase orders which would not cost the council money in the long term because if a house was bought, renovated and sold, the authority could take it costs back before passing the rest to the original owner.

He asked for more education for councillors and residents on how to recognise empty properties.

Housing officer Nick Kennet said the next Empty Homes Week would, Covid-19 allowing, include more interactive publicity, but compulsory purchases tied up a lot of money for a long time.