Council to target town's empty homes and hotels

Blackpool Council is drawing plans up to reduce the number of empty and derelict houses and hotels in the seaside town.

Official data show there were about 1,500 empty homes in the resort last year, among the highest number for any town in the United Kingdom.

Unoccupied shops, long-term empty B&Bs and deteriorating, disused hotels create a number of serious issues for Blackpool, while the council is also worried about the number of empty houses.

Apart from the negative visual impression, it believes empty houses are a vandalism magnet, raise health and safety concerns, exacerbate the serious shortage of affordable homes in the town and mean a reduction in council tax and business rate revenue.

Blackpool Council is the primary driver and co-investor behind the £350m mixed-use regeneration Talbot Gateway scheme around Blackpool North railway station, including the Multiversity.

The local authority has also submitted a bid for Blackpool to become the 2029 City of Culture.

The Empty Property Strategy is intended to deal with buildings that are blighting Blackpool's urban regeneration efforts.

A report presented on Wednesday to a meeting of the council's climate change and environmental scrutiny committee said: "Empty properties present a significant challenge for Blackpool.

"Whilst some vacant properties are temporarily unoccupied as a result of sale, probate or refurbishment, a substantial number remain empty for prolonged periods."

It stated that this could contribute to neighbourhood decline, anti-social behaviour, environmental problems, vandalism and housing stock deterioration.

"At the same time, demand for suitable housing within the borough remains high," the report noted.

Although the Lancashire town has historically experienced levels of empty properties above the national average, recent reports show that there are about 1,500 empty homes across the borough - more than 2% of the privately owned housing stock.

It said the new Empty Property Strategy sought to support owners in "bringing properties back into use whilst ensuring that effective enforcement action is taken where owners fail to engage and properties continue to have a detrimental impact on local communities".

Owners will receive advice and support to renovate their properties for sale or rent, with stronger action - including compulsory purchase orders - if premises are judged to have been left empty for too long.

Among the long-term empty properties in Blackpool are the former Carlton Hotel, on the junction of Queen Street and Abingdon Street.

Steve Savage, who runs the Shining Diamond B&B on Havelock Street near another empty hotel, said it created "a very bad impression in what is a holiday zone".

He said it was "an accident waiting to happen", with children accessing it frequently.

"The best thing for that building - and the empty ones next to it - would be to bulldoze the lot and start again," he told Local Democracy Reporting Service.

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