Not as hair brained as you might think! A council in the West Midlands has already operated a similar scheme were an eldery person can move into sheltered accomodation rent free for a 3 year period conditional on making their own home available for rent by the council. The house is handed back at the end of the 3 years but the owner can choose to remain in council accomadation, paying rent of course.Lorraine - Mijas wrote:I read recently, an article in the UK papers, it was a similar hair brained scheme, where a county council in the north west who have a shortage of council owned houses, have come up with the idea of commandeering privately owned homes that remain empty for longer than six months. The council wants legal powers to take empty private dwellings for a period of 7 years and rent them to tenants on the council waiting list !!!! The difference between Spains plan and the one in the UK is that the UK council will renovate properties that require it and then will hand them back to their rightful owners at the end of the 7 YEAR period.
Bizarre but true!!
I know someone who has benefited from this and the scheme has been very successful in helping people who need short term or emergency council housing. Maybe something along these lines could work in Spain, especially with the older village houses that are in a poor state of repair. Might even be welcomed by a family who have inherited but can't afford to restore
Cassandra