Lee Martin, leader of the Tories on Wearside, has criticised the council and housing group gentoo for letting large parts of the city's stock be demolished when he claims it is in the grip of a housing crisis.

He is demanding the Government extend Empty Dwelling Management Orders (Edmos) to cover Registered Social Landlords (RSL) such as gentoo.

Edmos give councils powers to seize, renovate and lease private homes that have stood empty for six months or more.

The figures, obtained by Coun Martin, Conservative prospective candidate for Sunderland Central in a General Election, show there are 1,253 former council houses in Sunderland that have stood empty for more than six months.

This means Sunderland now has more empty public sector homes than any other part of the region.

The city also has 653 households that are registered as homeless, and the council and gentoo have 26,584 people on the waiting list.

The figures also show that the number of homeless households being put up in temporary accommodation on March 31 were nine with a further three being put up in bed and breakfast accommodation in Whitley Bay.

Coun Martin said: "The council washed their hands of housing when they sold off the city's entire housing stock for little more than £6,000 a piece.

"Since then they've stood back and watched as estate after estate have been emptied and hundreds of perfectly good homes have been boarded up or pulled down.

"As a result we now have thousands of families on Wearside who are without a home of their own, and we have the scandal of a council that is forced to place Sunderland residents in bed and breakfast accommodation outside of the city.

"Gordon Brown has said housing will be a priority for his Government. If he's serious about this then he will extend Edmos to social landlords.

"If the Government refuse to extend the legislation to RSLs, then the council should buy back and refurbish the empty properties to tackle the city's housing crisis and prevent the properties from becoming magnets for vandals, drug users, squatters and arsonists.

"We should be repairing our local communities not demolishing them."


Council and gentoo hit back

Gentoo and the council have hit back, claiming the figures are false and misleading.

Ian Porter, managing director of gentoo Sunderland, said: "The statistics are inaccurate and misleading.

"gentoo currently has only around 100 properties that are in the process of being made available to customers through our regular turnover process.

"The majority of these properties are reoccupied within three weeks following repairs and allowing new tenants time for removals."

He added there are a further 320 being modernised and of the remainder, 640 are gearing up to be demolished to "enable gentoo to continue to provide homes for the future".

Coun Bob Symonds, leader of the council, added: "Sunderland City Council takes a very proactive approach with our partners to housing regeneration and providing homes across the city within both social housing and the private sectors.

"Of the empty properties many are being modernised or improved, in the process or being handed over to families to move into, or in the process of demolition as part of the housing renewal programmes taking place across the city."