POWERS designed to bring empty properties back into use need to be beefed up and simplified, housing experts have said.

The plea comes after the powers were used on just a handful of occasions in nine years.

Empty dwelling management orders have been used just nine times in nine years across the whole region according to figures obtained by Green South East MEP Keith Taylor.

His former Brighton and Hove City Council colleague Bill Randall, now the authority’s housing committee chairman, said the orders needed to be strengthened to give councils the power to take over empty properties that their landlords were unwilling or unable to bring back to a liveable standard. Around one in 40 of all properties in Sussex lie empty – an estimated 20,000 potential homes.

The orders, launched in 2006, allow a council to take temporary ownership of an empty home while officers work with the owner to make it habitable. Originally, the orders could be applied to a home that had been empty for six months but that was extended in 2011 to two years.

Coun Randall said the city was held up as a “national exemplar” when it came to bringing empty properties back to life with 700 in the Green’s five-year administration.

He added: “The order was fine in principle but it got watered down when it was being brought in.

“How it should work is that it would be mandatory, the council could come and do up the property and rent it to someone on the waiting list with the rent paying for the work and then at a later date the property could return to the landlord.

“That would be a good idea, if people didn’t have the money to up the homes themselves, they would get it back in good condition.” Mr Taylor MEP said the figures clearly illustrated that the Empty Dwelling Management Orders (EDMO) system was “failing”.

He said: “It’s totally scandalous to have thousands of homeless people sleeping rough when there are nearly a million empty houses at the same time.”

A Hastings Borough Council spokesman described the EDMO route as “cumbersome” and “pitfall laden”.

He added: “We believe it is far simpler to compulsory purchase a property than it is to do an EDMO, which is why we have a comprehensive Compulsory Purchase Order programme in place.”

An Adur and Worthing councils spokesman added: “Although EDMOs are one of the enforcement tools available to all councils, they are slow, resource intensive and do not necessarily offer a long-term solution to the problem.

“More effective powers are available which can ensure that dwellings are returned to more permanent occupation.”