Hundreds of empty buildings 'attracting squatters'

Concerns were aired at a meeting at Middlesbrough Town Hall

Hundreds of empty business properties risk attracting squatters and anti-social behaviour, councillors have been warned.

Middlesbrough Borough Council was also losing money as 426 of the 761 vacant buildings in the town were exempt from paying business rates, a report to the authority said.

Councillors were also told the authority did not have enough funding to threaten landlords with compulsory purchases.

Labour councillor David Branson said: "The impact on how the town looks is really quite awful."

More than 750 of the 4,638 buildings were lying empty in Middlesbrough, which is about one in six, a place scrutiny committee meeting was told.

Committee chair Branson said he was "shocked" that so may property landlords did not have to pay rates.

State of disrepair

He said his solution would be to ensure the council had the power to take these properties over without having to pay compulsory purchase order (CPO) money, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Richard Horniman, director of regeneration, said "better funding" was needed to execute compulsory purchasing.

"If you own one of these large properties, we will threaten you with compulsory purchase, but you know it's going to take years," he added.

Head of resident and business support Janette Savage also warned squatters and anti-social behaviour could become a problem if big buildings were not secured.

She said if landlords were not paying rates there was "little incentive" to do anything with buildings.

“If an organisation decides to take things out of the property, maybe bathrooms, kitchens, leaving it in a state of disrepair, they can then apply to the Valuation Office and have the property taken out of rating," Ms Savage said.

"There’s not a great deal the local authority can do to stop that from happening.”