AN INVESTIGATION HAS FOUND £800m worth of vacant London properties owned by crown estate, enough for 546 flats – as the city faces a housing crisis.
The Queens Property Empire is home to 312 vacant properties in the greater London area – Regents Street rooms, offices garages and other London properties, according to City A.M.
“We’ve been saying for some time that empty publicly owned properties are an important part of the solution to the housing deficit, but the sheer total is a pretty astonishing value,” Russell Quirk, chief executive of online estate agent eMoov, told City A.M. newspaper.
A spokesperson for Queen’s property business argued that they behave like [any] other commercial property developer: “So it is quite natural we’re taking back leases and re-developing those assets.”
“The country is still in the grip of a housing crisis, whilst an abundance of government owned buildings lie vacant,” said Quirk.
An analysis by shelter – the homelessness charity – revealed local London councils have received “27,000 pleas last year alone from people who are on the brink of homelessness.” And called upon the public “for support as [their] advisors are struggling to cope with the demand from families”.
The record profit of 285.1m the Crown Estate generated the past financial year is required – by an act of parliament (Crown Estate act 1961) – to be placed into the Treasury for the benefit of public finances, 15% of which is returned backed to the Queen.