A SCHEME being touted as a way of freeing up empty homes for council tenants has come in for criticism.

The district council is promoting the plan, which offers the owners of empty homes who do not want to sell a Government grant of up to £50,000 towards renovations.

Under the scheme, the home owner must lease the house to a tenant through the council or housing association, which would collect an ‘affordable’ level of rent for three years.

After three years, the owner can reclaim the home or continue renting it out to a council tenant and start collecting the rent.

The council is pushing the scheme the latest edition of its magazine The Forester, where it says the homes will provide “a much-needed housing resource and help meet a huge housing demand, especially in the current market conditions.”

It said one house in the district had been renovated under the scheme recently and a family had now moved into it.

Geoff Boughton, 66, of Colson Road, who is a member of the Epping Forest Leaseholders and Tenants Association, said: “I don’t think it’s a good way to spend Government money.

“Whatever the home owners’ reasons are for not being able to do the repairs, my thought is to sell it. I don’t expect the Government to come along and say we will do it all up at great expense.

“It doesn’t seem like it’s going to solve the housing crisis in any way, shape or form.

“It’s just saying if you’ve got property, we will do it up for you and you can get the benefits of it, just for the sake of having it for three years.”

He added that the six-month tenancies that would be offered did not provide much stability for people needing a home.

The Guardian has asked the Department for Communities and Local Government, which will be providing the grants, to comment.

Anyone interested in the scheme should call council worker Paul Callaghan on 01992 564706.

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