Wigan borough has 400 empty council dwellings

But that’s because Wigan has far more council homes than anywhere else.

Other news: Death knell sounds for troubled Wigan street

Data from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Governnent, showed that last April, there were 138 homes which had not been let for at least six months, 135 of which were “not available” to let at the time the information was gathered.

The total number of 416 town hall-owned empty dwellings makes up almost half of the 864 in Greater Manchester, dwarfing the figure in other boroughs, such as Stockport which has only 22 empty properties and Salford which has only three. Manchester City Council has reported 288 empty houses in its ownership, with other boroughs such as Bolton, Rochdale, Tameside and Trafford having none.

Vicky Bannister, Wigan Council assistant director for housing, said: “We have a successful record in keeping our stock of 22,000 homes occupied. Latest figures show there are just over 400 empty council homes, which works out at under two per cent of our stock and is a normal figure for tenant turnover.

“The empty homes are either in the process of being repaired and re-let, are already available to let or are earmarked for redevelopment.”

There are more than 22,000 council-owned properties in Wigan, compared with none in Tameside, Trafford, Rochdale and Bolton, 1,235 in Salford and 8,000 in Bury.

Manchester and Stockport have a larger number with 16,110 and 11,286 respectively. Social housing is available in all Greater Manchester boroughs, but some councils have handed over ownership to private partners.

More than £33m was spent in Wigan on improving council-owned houses last year.

Recent data has revealed that more than a quarter of vacant borough council homes have been sat empty for over six months, many of which have received renovations and maintenance to either bring them up to scratch or prevent them from falling into a worse state.

Figures from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Governnent, showed that in April 2017, there were 138 homes which had not been let for at least six months, 135 of these were “not available” to let at the time the information was gathered.

The figures showed that of all the dwelling stock owned by the local authority, including occupied ones, 415 were fitted with new boilers last year and a further 500 planned boiler replacements for 2017/18. Replacement boilers between 2016 and 2017 cost the town hall £952,000 and as much as £11m was spent on bathroom improvements.

A total of 1,865 houses were “made decent” last year but just as many become non-decent at the same time and 5,010 houses received work to prevent them from deteriorating.

The town hall has revealed that of the hundreds of properties which were empty at the time of the survey, none was beyond a reasonable state of repair and none of them were without modern amenities or a “reasonable” degree of comfort.