IT is easy to understand why Bolton Council feels aggrieved that the government do not accept any ‘reclaimed properties’ as counting towards a government target for Bolton of almost 800 new homes in a year.

Having ‘reclaimed’ nearly 600 empty properties and brought them back into use, which, if then added to the 437 new homes built in the borough, would of course exceed the government target of nearly 800 homes.

However there is a bit of sleight of hand here, or smoke and mirrors. The 600 homes already exist within the borough and the government is interested in increasing the housing stock, not in shuffling about within the existing number of homes.

There are questions about the 600 homes being ‘reclaimed’. Who are they reclaimed from? Why are 600 homes standing empty, and for how long before being ‘reclaimed’? What work is done to these properties to bring them back in to use again? Who does the work and what is the cost? Who owns these homes when they are brought back in to use? Who lets these homes? Are they private or social housing, or both? Etc.

It is not clear what the implications are for a council which does not meet a government housing target, perhaps it is just a box tick, or there may be some financial incentive in meeting the government target, who knows?.

However, back to smoke and mirrors, if Bolton were to ‘reclaim’ 800 homes in any year, and if these were recognised by government towards the target, you would have a situation where Bolton council would meet the government and its own ambitious target set for building new homes, without Bolton actually building a single new home. Daft!

What should be conceded by government of course is the effort being made by the council to recycle existing properties back in to use (subject to understanding why so many homes in Bolton are available to be recycled) and some kind of Brownie points should be given by government, say, for every 4 houses recycled, it could count as one new home in Bolton by government..

There are a given number of homes already in Bolton which need to increase according to the government by about 800, and the council go one further and suggest that they can build 821 new homes, neither target is achieved by fiddling about with Bolton’s existing built homes.