MORE than half the homes in the West End are not used “as a primary residence”, the leader of the city council told a conference in Birmingham as he reiterated demands for councils to be given powers to threaten seizure of homes left empty for long periods.

Cllr Adam Hug told the Empty Homes Network event in Birmingham yesterday, Thursday, he had already talked about the problem in Westminster for “too long” and listed four demands for the Labour government.

“Airbnb-type accommodation” and also medical lets that were “only advertised in the Middle East by those visiting private hospitals in the city” were part of the wider problem, he said.

“There are 1,300 empty homes formally registered through our council tax process. But we know that this is a massive undercount exacerbated by issues around the challenges of identifying non-compliance and complications created by substantial overseas ownership, particularly by opaque trusts.”

Cllr Hug (inset) said the city council had made “returning empty homes into use a priority for our administration”, and added: “The demand for affordable housing in Westminster far outstrips its availability and private rents have been spiralling. For every five-person household currently living in temporary accommodation, there are 10 or more registered empty properties across Westminster. Each home brought back into use could save the council £70,000 a year in temporary accommodation costs, helping cut the bill from the whopping £66million we had to pay from our general fund last year to bridge the gap between our costs and what we get from the government.”

The Labour councillor said he had four main asks for the government including “a change in the law to allow local authorities to use a reformed system to apply to take control of private sector properties when they have been empty for more than six months”.

More funding was needed from the government, help identifying empty homes, and changing regulations so councils can charge empty properties based on value rather than council tax band.