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Owners of dilapidated shops in Bargoed could be forced by the council make repairs on their crumbling properties as part of a drive to smarten up the town centre.

Caerphilly County Borough Council’s cabinet has approved £100,000 of funding for its ‘Bargoed Empty Property Enforcement Action Plan’ to target problem commercial properties.

At its meeting on Wednesday, September 15, Rhian Kyte, Head of Regeneration and Planning at the council said Bargoed had the highest vacancy rate of all town centres in the county borough and will serve as a trial for a new approach in dealing with “problematic” landlords who are either absent or who refuse to maintain their property.

The aim is bring premises back into use to attract entrepreneurs to open in the town centre.

While the council already has legal powers to serve improvement notices on landlords and then charge them for works if they refuse, Ms Kyte said the authority had been reluctant to do so as they previously had no budget.

She said: “If we’ve got a small budget, and I know £100,000 is a lot of money but in the great scheme of things it’s a relatively small budget, that could give us the comfort to go in, serve the notices.

“If those owners don’t do the work we can go in and either do them in default, but if they are minded to do the work we can offer then a grant to help them – it’s a carrot and stick approach really.”

Ms Kyte added: “We do not want to come down hard on anyone who is actually trying to do something to their property.”

The council estimates the £100,000 would be enough for works to be carried out on around ten properties.

The Welsh Government have agreed to provide additional funding of £250,000 for the project, as part of the Head of the Valleys Taskforce.

Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Economic Development, Eluned Stenner, said she was “glad to see that the absent landlords will be contacted”.

Councillors also approved spending £30,000 to assess the feasibility of developing a parcel of brownfield land in Risca.

The land, part-owned by the local authority and private development firm Birds, is at the rear of 139 to 153 Commercial Street. The council said it was in talks with the other landowners.

Ms Kyte said the viability of the scheme, which could compromise commercial, retail and leisure buildings, was questionable and a difficult site to develop.

The project is in a series of bids for the UK Government’s Levelling Up Fund. The assessment of the site will form part of the proposal for the bid.