Wednesday, February 5, 2014
“That’s the owners’ perogative”
'Billionaires Row': inside Hampstead palaces left empty for decades
Sixteen mansions on the most expensive stretch of the second most expensive street in the country are empty except for the pigeons that have taken over. Outside there are padlocked gates, windows shuttered by steel grilles and overgrown grounds patrolled by guard dogs and security guards. But that doesn't prevent their value from rising. Asked whether leaving homes vacant for decades was acceptable a Conservative councillor replied: "That's (the owners') prerogative. It is difficult to imagine what one would put in place to force things to be different to how they are." MW was not asked to comment on that remark. (Article's a few days old but wasn't posted here).
Posted by icarus @ 03:18 PM (3907 views)
5 thoughts on ““That’s the owners’ perogative””
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icarus says:
Link not working for some reason. Google the headline?
icarus says:
URL has changed to http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jan/31/inside-london-billionaires-row-derelict-mansions-hampstead
khards says:
Didn’t the nasty party give local councils power to cease empties?
Oh, I see, that just applies to regular folk.
mombers says:
You see these are private property so the owners can do what they please with them.Unfortunately, business profits and wages are not private property and so can be appropriated via taxation to provide services for landowners
Nightfollowsday says:
One answer would be to end the frankly ludicrous 100% tax free incentives for property speculation. If there were to be no potential for profit seeking through property ownership such speculation would end and houses would become purely for the provision of accommodation and no longer sit empty. This applies to a maisonette as it does a mansion. This would be more effective and far easier to implement than the frequently championed land value tax.