GOING CHEAP

What do you do with derelict property? In Denmark, most houses in that condition are in rural areas. Young people move to the cities; and if they do come back when they start a family, they tend to want to build something new rather than live in a thatched farmhouse requiring oodles of maintenance. The solution is a dollop of central Government money to demolish the buildings, of which there are an estimated 10,000 or so.

However, creating a hole in an isolated field (which can then be grassed over or otherwise left to nature) is a different kettle of fish from creating a hole in the middle of a city. The U.K., which has the oldest average housing stock in Europe (a legacy of the fact that it was the first country to experience the Industrial Revolution), has lots of pockets of urban blight in old industrial cities. Boarded-up windows, graffiti, petty crime, rubbish and closing shops give an incentive for residents to try to move away, making the problem worse.

Some cities, starting with Liverpool and Stoke-on-Trent, have come up with a novel idea. The houses are offered for sale for £1, albeit with certain conditions. These can vary, but include obligations to do up the property (using a loan taken out from the local council) and to live there for a specified minimum length of time. By excluding rich people and those who already own another property, it encourages low-income families who might not otherwise be able to buy a house, and thereby increases the chances that property ownership will gradually grow into community.

This is an imaginative approach to what is a genuine problem. There is a housing shortage in the U.K., but there are also lots of empty properties. Trying to close that gap is worth the attempt.

Walter Blotscher