NEARLY 430 homes are unused in Oxford, despite the city’s housing crisis.

Figures obtained through a Freedom of Information request show there are 428 homes currently vacant in the city as controversial plans to build more across Oxfordshire are passed.

A notable house still unused is 83 Cowley Road, which the city council mooted compulsorily purchasing in 2015.

But according to its owner, the authority has taken no action since then. It has been empty since 1995.

Martin Young said the authority had thought it would be able to buy it ‘for peanuts’ but baulked at being told it would need to ‘pay through the nose’ – and potentially £1.6m – for it.

Mr Young said: “When it came to pay through the nose for it you didn’t see them for dust. As far as I know [the purchase] has gone completely to sleep.”

Mr Young said the renovation of the Cowley Road plot is largely dependent on the sale of land which is the subject of a protracted planning saga in Headington.

He has wanted to sell the plot at 29 Old High Street with planning permission for decades – but that is in the balance, with the Planning Inspectorate set to decide on it soon.

Mr Young added: “The point I would like to stress is that no one with empty property does it willingly. It is meant to earn them value – but (empty) it doesn’t.”

Of the 428 homes across Oxford, five have been empty for more than 10 years. One is ‘prevented from being used for anyone other than members of the household to which it is part of,’ according to the city council.

Another is empty because the owner died and the estate’s executor has not moved forward with resolving its legal issues. The council said it is considering if it could compulsorily purchase it.

Meanwhile, 80 other homes in the city have been empty for more than two years and are subject to a 150 per cent council tax premium. Of those, 37 are in East Oxford’s OX4 postcode, while 16 another are in Headington’s OX3 postcode.

The city council said a home which sat empty since 1989 will soon be back in use. The house at 100 Spencer Crescent in Rose Hill was the subject of a lengthy compulsory purchase battle until last year.

It will now be used by council tenants, with the authority hopeful it will be occupied in weeks.