A property developer has just seven days to comply with a council order to smarten up a house in a Conservation Area.

Martin Young has until next Monday to carry out improvements to 29 Old High Street, in the Old Headington Conservation Area, under terms of an Oxford City Council improvement order.

And residents are now putting pressure on the council to seize the house when the deadline expires.

The house has stood empty for the past five years.

Stella Welford, of Friends of Old Headington, said: “We certainly don’t want the house to be demolished.

“If an empty homes order is something the council can do once the notice expires then I would want to see that happen. At this stage I think it is unlikely Mr Young will do anything to the house.”

An empty dwelling management order allows local councils to take over the management of a property with a view to bringing it back into occupation. Although it does not affect the ownership of the property it can only be used as a last resort.

City council spokesman Louisa Dean said: “We will wait for the notice to expire before we make any decisions.”

She revealed there were about 500 “long-term empty properties” in Oxford though no empty home orders have been made this year.

The city council said that on or after the deadline a further inspection will be carried out on the property.

If no further action has been taken the city council will then consider its next step – which could include seeking an empty homes order to allow it to carry out work itself. In such a case, councils seek to recoup the cost of improvements directly from the owner or by renting out the property.

Mr Young, a property developer who lives in Headington Hill, was refused permission to knock the house down and replace it with five three-storey terraced houses.

He said: “No one has ever complained to me in person but I have been told there are complaints made to the city council.

“I’m perfectly amenable to hearing complaints.

“The city is desperate for housing but the residents of Old Headington want something nice to look at.”

Mr Young bought the 19th century property in 1978, planning on turning it into a family home.

But that never happened and he ended up only sleeping in the property while working at his mother’s house nearby.

Explaining the lack of improvement work at the house, he said: “It is all such a monumental legal tangle and it takes so long to sort things out.”