There is much outrage being stoked at the moment about empty properties in Kensington.
Labour has condemned as “simply unacceptable” revelations that 1,652 properties are unoccupied in the London borough where the Grenfell Tower fire took place, calling for government action to bring them back into use.
This is the extension of the mob behaviour we were seeing in the immediate aftermath. It’s made worse by the fact that the owners of these properties are “rich”, oligarchs even and are usually out of the country. Watch this hysteria being whipped up in the next few weeks to put pressure on the government to abandon property rights, because that is what this is; an attack on one of the cornerstones of a civilised society. There is nothing whatsoever “unacceptable” about a property being left empty. They can use it to house their dogs if that is their will, because – and this is an important point – it belongs to them. And that is all that matters. Nothing else. What they do with it is their business, not the state’s and not the Labour party. In fact, no one.
Names emerged in a list detailing the council tax information of the vacant homes and their 1,197 owners. This appeared to have been accidentally sent by the council to multiple recipients, including the Guardian.
Oh, yeah, accidentally alright. That person should be sacked forthwith.
Among the empty properties is the former Brompton Road tube station building, vacant since it was bought for £53m by the Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash in 2014. He is currently fighting extradition to the US.
The media billionaire and former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg bought a seven-bedroom grade II*-listed mansion for £16m in 2015, which remains empty.
Other unoccupied properties are owned by offshore companies, including Dukes Lodge London Ltd, part of Christian Candy’s luxury property business; and Smech Properties Ltd, owned by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the vice-president of the United Arab Emirates and ruler of Dubai.
So what? This is little more than rabble rousing whipping up hatred of the other. It is softening us up for state seizure of private property.
Responding to the list of empty properties, he [John Healey] said: “When the country is already in the grip of a housing crisis, the fact that properties are left empty is simply unacceptable.”
No, actually, it’s none of your fucking business.
He said: “Labour would allow councils to charge a 300% empty homes premium on properties that have been empty for more than a year and ask them to prepare empty-homes strategies to bring homes back into use in each area.”
Note the use of “ask” there. Much like that snake McDonnell talking about “asking” the wealthy to pay more tax. What he means is “we intend to force people to give us their property.”
“We would also reverse the Conservatives’ weakening of councils’ powers to introduce empty dwelling management orders to bring homes back into use.”
There you go. A thief.
Kim Taylor-Smith, the deputy leader of Kensington and Chelsea council, said: “Unfortunately, we have no powers to compel owners to live in their properties, but we can and do offer support and advice to help bring long-term empty properties back into use.”
Unfortunately, eh?
In the wake of the Grenfell fire the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, suggested using emergency legislation to requisition empty properties needed to house those affected by the blaze.
Another thief.
Helen Williams of the Empty Homes Network, a group which campaigns for properties to be returned to use, called for tougher sanctions to be introduced for owners of homes who persist in leaving them unoccupied.
And another one. If people wish to leave their properties empty, that is up to them. Not you. If these people get their way, then it will apply to us all eventually. When I owned it, my French property was empty for much of the year until we were able to move in full-time. We couldn’t have done it if we had been forced to let it. Not with French legislation giving tenants pretty much squatters’ rights, anyway.
Private property means just that – it is private. It is up to the owner to do with it as they wish. It is not the place of anyone else – and certainly not the state – to do anything whatsoever to persuade them or force them to do otherwise, for that is a dangerous precedent. A society that does not respect property rights is not a civilised one.
I own four bicycles. If that nice Mr. Corbyn becomes P.M. he will presumably be commandeering three of them for his utopian people’s paradise. As has been pointed out here before, the kind of people who are fine with the government stealing rich people’s houses don’t realise that, once the precedent has been set, their stuff will be fair game too.
During NuLabour’s reign of terror I seem to remember talk of a new law such that either LAs or HMG could acquire properties which had lain empty for more than six months.
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“When the country is already in the grip of a housing crisis, the fact that properties are left empty is simply unacceptable.”
Yes, well, when the country is already in the grip of a housing crisis the fact that full-scale immigration is promoted is simply unacceptable.
100% spot on.
These people are so stupid they make my brain hurt.
I own mostly unoccupied property in British Columbia, Canada – a cabin on 11 lakefront acres. I pay the bastard British Columbia government a non resident tax equal to double the ordinary property tax. i.e I pay 3 times what locals pay.
And I use almost no government services.
I am a gigantic profit centre to the local economy. Not only taxation without service, but I buy lotsa ordinary goods and services from them.
Clearly there has been a huge brain drain from Britain to British Columbia, because the locals know how much they profit off me and love me properly and accordingly.
I imagine they’d love to do this to cars also. All those nice Jags and Mercs sat in a car park all day – unused and unoccupied, when so many have no access to executive vehicles. Why not requisition them to run grannies to the hospital while they’re not in use…..? Socialism in action……
Scum.