Please could you provide the following information for areas that fall under Essex County Council's authority for the period 1 January 2021 to 31st December 2025:
1. Vacant commercial and retail properties
· The total number of commercial/retail premises recorded as empty, vacant or unoccupied
· Where available, please could these figures be broken down by length of vacancy:
Less than 6 months
· 6 – 12 months
· 12 months – 2 years
· More than 2 years
2. Empty property business rates relief
· The number of commercial/retail properties receiving empty property business rates relief or exemption at the end of each calendar year
3. Empty property notices
· The number of empty property notices, enforcement notices, or equivalent action taken in relation to vacant commercial/retail premises
4. Enforcement action relating to derelict buildings
· The number of enforcement actions taken in relation to vacant, derelict or poorly maintained commercial/retail premises, including boarding-up/securing works, Section 215 notices and other relevant enforcement notices, where separately recorded
5. Environmental health and anti-social behaviour
· Where separately recorded by the council or its relevant ASB team, please share the number of environmental complaints, reports, investigations, interventions or enforcement actions
For each of the above requests, please could the figures be broken down by town or city and year, where possible. Please provide the data in the following format:
Where figures are not available for the full calendar year, please provide the closest available period and clearly state the period covered. Where data is unavailable, please state this rather than providing an estimate.
If any part of this request exceeds the appropriate cost limit, I would be grateful if you could advise how it might be refined so that it can be processed.
