From Cllr James Baker

Monday, 3 September 2012

I don't think the coalition needed to make squatting illegal.

I do know one or two people who let property out, and I appreciate there are problems with the time and energy it takes to evict people, I think the solution should have been to speed up that process.

Perhaps they could have made it an offence to stay in a property after having being asked to leave by the landlord?

I think elsewhere we need to start ensuring people with empty properties have to pay council tax on it. That's currently something Calderdale is proposing to do. Hopefully that would ensure more empty homes get put back on the property or rental markets.

Finally there is the wider problem of affordable housing. The inflated cost of housing resulting from the housing bubble and amount the banks have been lending (too much as the collapse showed!) is a major problem.