Shocking figures just released expose the scale of the empty homes scandal in Southwark. Six thousand homes in Southwark lie empty, which is more than neighbouring Lambeth, Lewisham and Tower Hamlets combined. The figures have gone up by around a thousand every year for the last three years, and the trend is expected to continue. With three times the average number of vacant properties in London, Southwark has been dubbed the ‘Empty Homes capital of London.’

Several reasons have been given for the record number. Scandalously one in four of all new homes built in Southwark over recent years have been sold abroad – this should not be legal or allowed. Many new developments are being ‘Bought to Leave.’ One in seven of the empty homes are owned by the Council, who take on average 107 days to fill, while neighbouring Tower Hamlets manage to do so in 23. This clearly isn’t good enough, when there are over 10,000 families and individuals on the council house waiting list. Owners of empty properties are often exempt from council tax.

When we are in the grip of a housing crisis and a visible increase of homeless people on the streets, no-one can dispute that something has gone very wrong with Southwark’s housing policy with six thousand empty homes. That these are by far and away the worst figures in the city is appalling.

The Southwark Council isn’t powerless. It owns one in seven of Southwark’s empty homes and they take months to turn around empty property. If a family moved out of a council house today, the likelihood is that the home would remain empty until July. This isn’t good enough.

Southwark Labour and even their leader are very cosy with developers partaking in gifts, corporate entertainment and the like. We need mixed communities, with empty houses being taxed additionally to get them available again as soon as possible.

Beat The Street is a concept to get people choosing to walk much more – often powered by child pester power.

The idea is to make walking locally – whether to school or some other destination such as a libraries, cinemas, etc – into a game. Effectively a much more compelling logging of walking that simple Step counting.

Because of the set up costs for a new area, rolling out Beat the Street across small populations apparently isn’t viable. Typically, the average cost of Beat the Street works out at around £1 per head of population, but this formula only ‘works’ for populations above 75,000. This is why they usually encourage people to try to scope a project across a whole Borough, rather than one smaller ward or area such as East Dulwich.

I’ve been give a rough estimate, to roll Beat the Street out across Southwark would be around £250,000 and that this could see around 14% of the population (of 302,000) would be actively engaged: 42,300 people. This works out around £6 per active participant.

I need to see if it would be worth trying to get a group of stakeholders from across the Southwark together to see if there is an appetite for a Borough-wide project. Typically Beat the Street has been funded through the Public Health and Transport departments of Local Authorities, sometimes with additional support from local companies who want to fund this as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility.

Would you take part?

The Council’s tax on residents who want to get rid of their bulky waste items must be scrapped, Liberal Democrat councillors have demanded.

Following government figures which show that Southwark has the fourth worst level of flytipping in England, Liberal Democrats have called for the Council to make reporting flytips easier and for more regular clean-ups of streets and estates.

One year ago Southwark Labour councillors introduced a new £16 charge for all residents who wanted to have their bulky waste items collected from their home. Using the Council’s own figures, flytipping on Southwark’s streets has increased by 10%.

Liberal Democrat councillors have also highlighted how:

• the new bulky waste collection service can only be ordered online and only by those residents with a debit or credit card. This excludes a large number of Southwark residents without access to the internet or a bank account
• the Council has removed recycling points from public areas such as supermarket car parks because of the level of flytipping.

At a council meeting last month, Southwark Liberal Democrats called on the Labour administration to scrap the bulky waste collection fee, make it easier to order bulky waste collections and count all flytipping incidents. Labour councillors changed the order of business deliberately though so that the motion could not be debated.

 Liberal Democrat Environment Spokesperson, Councillor Rosie Shimell, said:

“Southwark now has the fourth worst level of flytipping in the whole of England and Labour’s new bulky waste tax is just making things worse.

“Everyone can see that Southwark’s streets and estates are getting dirtier. Despite our warnings though, ruling Labour councillors don’t seem to make the connection between their new fee and increased flytipping.

“Liberal Democrats are fighting residents’ corner and are calling on Labour to drop their £16 waste tax.”