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Scandal of house left empty since 1979

Wednesday, 19 October 2011 12:42 PM

Pink Floyd were number one with Another Brick in the Wall the last time anyone lived at 87 Chester Terrace in Brighton.

The scandal of the house that has been empty since 1979 was revealed this week but it is just one of 933 homes that have been empty for more than six months in a city that has 13,372 people on its housing waiting list.

Neighbours started complaining about the Chester Terrace house 32 years ago but all attempts by the city council to force the owner to sell have failed.

Council leader Bill Randall pledged it would try again to get a public inquiry into a compulsory purchase order. He told the BBC: “This house being empty for this length of time is an insult to every homeless and badly-housed family in Brighton and Hove."

David Ireland, chief executive of the Empty Homes Agency, said: "The real scandal is not just this house but that we have actually got 300,000 other homes like this across England.”

"At a time when house building is at its lowest rate since the 1920s, we have really got to make better use of the houses we have."

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