£1m Chelsea council house empty for a year

A £1 million council house has been left empty for almost a year after the previous tenants were evicted for not having enough children.

The four-bedroom townhouse, dubbed "Britain's smartest council house", is in a private mews in Chelsea. It was boarded up last March when the tenants were asked to leave because they had too few children to entitle them to stay there.

Campaigners and neighbours today branded it an "appalling waste" and called for the house to be sold so the money could be used to house families desperately in need of a home.

Robert Benardout, 50, a carpet salesman who lives opposite the house, said: "It's certainly a sore point around here. The way the windows and doors are boarded up looks disgusting. It's a nuisance, and it's a real shame — it could be used so valuably for other people to live in."

Another neighbour, who did not want to be named, said: "Apparently renovations were being done but I haven't seen anyone go in there in months. It's an appalling waste."

Mark Wallace, campaigns director for the Taxpayers' Alliance, called on the council to sell the house. He said: "It's crazy that a house like this is being left empty at a time when council revenues are so low and many people are waiting to be allowed into council housing.

"There are serious questions about a council owning a house as expensive as this. It really is one of Britain's smartest council houses. It becomes a big issue when the house could be sold to buy affordable housing for people on the waiting list. The council has to put their housing stock to use. It's horrendous that they're not."

The previous tenant Jamie Pascall, 35, and his girlfriend Charlene Imbert lived in the property in Billing Street with their daughter, 10, and Mr Pascall's brother Gavin. But the council argued a one-child family did not need a four-bedroom house and Mr Pascall's brother had a full-time job and therefore was not entitled to housing.

Previously, Mr Pascall's grandmother had lived there for 30 years.

Keith Holloway, director of customer services at Kensington and Chelsea's Tenant Management Organisation, which manages almost 10,000 homes on behalf of the borough, said: "The house is in very poor condition and we've been trying to organise what needs to be done to rent it out. We've received tenders back for the cost of repairing the house to make it habitable, and we're in the process of evaluating these." He was unable to comment on why it had been empty for so long.

There are thousands of council properties in the capitallying empty for months.

At least 5,500 houses owned by the London authorities are unoccupied, more than 3,000 of which have been vacant for three months or more. This is despite 353,000 people across the city waiting to be housed. The figures, released to the Standard under the Freedom of Information Act, created fury among campaigners.

Duncan Shrubsole, of homelessness charity Crisis, said: "It's scandalous to have so many properties empty and we would urge all local authorities to make sure they are using their council housing to maximum capacity."

A study by housing charity Shelter found that it will take 33 years to clear the council house waiting list in London. Councils today defended their position saying many of the houses were uninhabitable.

Lambeth Living, which manages social housing for Lambeth council, has 1,090 properties empty, 848 for more than three months, and 18,000 households on its housing waiting list — 8,000 of those families of two or more.

A spokeswoman said empty properties were usually awaiting repair, redecoration or re-letting. Experts also warned the empty houses were a magnet for squatters after figures also revealed that squatters have taken over 343 empty homes in London in the past year.

In Tower Hamlets almost half the 300 properties empty have been turned into squats. A spokeswoman for the council, which has almost 22,500 people on its waiting list for homes, said: "We take every step to prevent squatting."