IN his most recent letter, Adrian Wilson questions the number of empty council properties recently quoted by Councillor Sue Sunderland and states that "officers tell a different story" (November 22).
As the assistant director responsible for council housing services within York, I can categorically confirm that the number quoted was accurate and that we do not have, as Mr Wilson states, hundreds of empty council houses.
I can also confirm that there have been no cutbacks in maintenance of council homes.
Within York we have a good record of managing and re-letting empty properties and our annual performance figures published at the end of the financial year show our performance to be among the best in the country, with an average re-let time of 31 days.
However, as officers we are striving to improve on this and one of our key service priorities is to reduce this time further.
Mr Wilson also states that any increased rental income from re-letting properties quicker could be used to support "the new Barbican Centre".
An important principle in the financial management of council homes is that income from rents is ring-fenced to what is called the housing revenue account, which means that it can only be spent on council homes.
On a final point, the photo of a boarded-up property that accompanied Mr Wilson's earlier letter was a privately owned property not a council property (November 1).
Steve Waddington,
Assistant director of housing,
St Leonard's Place,
York.
Updated: 11:30 Monday, November 29, 2004
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