COUNCILLORS will consider the best way to tackle the hundreds of empty homes in Monmouthshire next week.

In November, it was revealed that the number of properties left empty for six months or more last year rose by almost five per cent.

Figures obtained by the Free Press showed that there were 696 empty properties in the county last year, up from 663 in 2015.

The figure was the highest recorded in the county since 2010, when the total stood at 450.

Now members of Monmouthshire County Council’s adult select committee will meet to assess the local authority’s current approach to tackling the issue.

The council’s environmental health and housing departments carried out inspections between 2013 and 2017 to identity the severity of the problem.

A council report says that empty homes in Monmouthshire are not dilapidated “as typified by headline news” and were not harming the local environment.

It reads: “A typical empty property found in Monmouthshire can be characterised as being owned by family members, refurbished for the owner to occupy, [of] sound condition and having no negative impact on its immediate environment.”

Council officers have given committee members three options as to how to take on the issue: do nothing and contradict the expectations of the Welsh Government, increase the level of resources and staff to tackle the issue directly, or continue with the work currently being done.

Members have been recommended to adopt the third option as it “offers a measured approach that is proportionate with the issue of empty properties in Monmouthshire.”

A further review will be conducted in 12 months to evaluate the impact of empty properties continues to have within the county.

Monmouthshire was one of three local authorities in the Gwent region to see increases in empty homes, while its 4.98 per cent spike was the ninth largest across Wales’ 22 councils between 2010 and 2016.

During this time Monmouthshire County Council have brought tenants back into 211 homes across the county.

But the number of properties reoccupied through direct action last year was just 27.

The meeting of the adults select committee will take place on Tuesday January 23 at 10am.

It will be streamed on the Monmouthshire County Council Youtube channel.