JUST 13 of Bradford's long term empty homes were brought back into use last year - leaving almost 4,000 remaining empty.

Properties are classed as "long term empty" if they are vacant for six months or more, and the most recent figures for Bradford show that 3,931 homes fall into that category.

The issue of empty homes was raised at a meeting of Bradford Council's Regeneration and Environment Scrutiny Committee this week.

Sarah Holmes, housing strategy manager at the Council, said the low number of houses brought back to use had to be taken in context, adding: "There is an increasing amount of housing stock. This is a small number, but in terms of relative performance it is quite a good performance."

Councillor Joanne Dodds (Lab, Great Horton) said: "I know from my own ward this is a problem, there are lots of homes that have just been left to rot."

Mrs Holmes, told the committee that if a property is empty for more than a year, the owner is charged 150 per cent council tax rates.

Parliament is soon to discuss changes that could see that rise to 200 per cent for properties that are empty for over two years.

She said if a property was considered unlivable it was removed from the housing stock lists.

Councillor Rebecca Whitaker (Cons, Craven) asked who the majority of these homes belonged to, adding: "What powers does the Council have to make owners bring them back into use? How do we prevent them from leaving houses just standing there?"

She was told the vast majority of properties were in private ownership, and that the council had "limited powers" to force owners to bring them back into use. They could, however, point them in the right direction to get support to make minor repairs.

The Council can take on houses through compulsory purchase orders, but the meeting was told that owners can object to this, leading to a costly public inquiry, and it was very much a last resort.

Councillor Ralph Berry (Lab, Wibsey) said: "In some areas of Bradford the economics of spending lots of money to bring a house back to use might not make sense to owners. In places like Barkerend they might not see it as being worth it.

"If you have five or six empty homes on a street it can make people's life hell."