WREXHAM Council says it has seen the number of empty houses reduce by nearly 50 per cent over the last two-years.

Currently only 1 per cent per cent of the council's stock is vacant, while the void refurbishment works are taking place between contract holders.

Each year, the council expects that between 600-700 properties become void, which are then assigned to either the Direct Labour Organisation (DLO) or external contractors to complete the remedial works. This is an average figure based on previous years.

The department has invested significantly into the refurbishment of empty property over the last 6 – 7 years, and this has really helped with the turnaround times of its empty property refurbishment programme.

This year, a further £11 million will be invested into empty properties, and these will be completed using a combination of in house DLO and external contractors.

This current financial year sees Wrexham Council change the vision slightly on their refurbishment programme.

The demands to meet the new Welsh Housing Quality Standard (WHQS 2023) and the Net Zero plans of the future, prove to be a huge challenge in the current financial climate.

Occasionally, throughout the year, using Optimised Retrofit Programme (ORP funding), a small amount of properties have received a full retrofit refurbishment as part of a pilot scheme.

These are works carried out to reduce the carbon footprint of the dwelling, additionally, these pilot schemes will help contract holders with reduced energy costs due to the increased energy efficiency of the converted property.

In the last year Wrexham Council has completed 10 properties of this kind, and they anticipate to increase these figures year on year, however, this will be subject to funding.

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Councillor David A Bithell, lead member for housing said: "We are continuing to work on our void properties to bring them up to the new Welsh Housing Quality Standard.

“I am pleased that despite the financial challenges we have managed to reduce our empty properties stock by nearly 50%.

“The retrofit refurbishment is useful for our contract holders as it can reduce energy cost and increase the energy efficiency of their property, however future refurbishments will depend on funding.”