Empty Brighton House Ruffles Community Feathers; May Result in Compulsory Purchase.

Brighton, sometimes referred to as “London-by-the-sea”, has recently seen a  period of gentrification (when wealthier people purchase or rent property in lower income areas), in which much of the formerly fashionable image of the area has made a resurgence.

Brighton, very much an artist’s haven, is well known for having its housing and media issues intertwined.  As part of the art community’s yearly showcase, artist’s houses are opened to the public and viewed as galleries, where occupants’ works are sold.

And now, a very public “open house” of sorts is taking centre stage in the news as neighbours and empty housing specialists criticise the fact that a house has stood empty since 1979—the year of Margaret Thatcher’s inauguration as Prime Minister.

The house, 87 Chester Terrace, built in the 1860’s, is not without a landlord. A Mr. Derek Burns has owned and lived in the property for years. In fact, he was born in the house. He doesn’t, however, reside there at present.

“The only occupants of a three-bedroomed family home in Brighton are the foxes in the overgrown, rubble-strewn garden,” we read in a BBC News – Sussex entry.

What irritates his neighbour, Julia Powell, is the unsightliness of the place…the rubbish and overgrowth is covered by plastic sheeting.  (She also decries “the huge shame” that it is empty.)

And what irritates community activists, such as City council leader, the Green Party’s Bill Randall–a former chair of Shelter’s National Housing Aid Trust–is that no headway has been made in attempts to elicit Mr. Burn’s cooperation to bring it back into use.

Randall admits that the process for doing so is difficult, and that broken promises by Mr. Burn have further stymied efforts.

The only solution the council feels they are left with is a compulsory purchase–again. “There is a public inquiry coming up—we hope,” the city council leader  said.

The original Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) was ordered in 1996, but the council never enacted it. Instead, they agreed to hand over £55,000 to Mr. Burns, “to carry out refurbishments”. These were never completed.

The situation illustrates a much larger issue.

“Chester Terrace is one of 933 homes in Brighton and Hove which have been empty for more than six months, according to the Empty Homes Agency, which campaigns to bring empty properties back into use,” the blog notes.

Across Sussex alone, there are 5,500 houses which, at present, stand empty.

David Ireland, chief executive of the Empty Homes Agency, bemoans the fact that Chester Terrace and other houses like it in the tony “London-by-the-sea” are the tip of the iceberg. “The real scandal is not just this house, but that we have…got 300,000 other homes like this across England,” he says.

-David Slade

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