TWO months ago this empty house was a rat-infested blot on the landscape.

But now, thanks to a heavy nudge to its owner from Oxford City Council, it is set to become a home again.

The £175,000 end terrace house in Weirs Lane had blighted the neighbourhood near Abingdon Road with rubbish, broken glass and dumped furniture strewn across the garden.

It had been empty for 15 years and the situation was so bad council officers decided to issue their first empty dwelling management order, giving the owner two months to sell up or clean up.

It clearly worked, as the property has been tidied up and is now set to be sold.

The owner is listed as a Peter Horn in Residential Property Tribunal documents. The Oxford Mail has tried unsuccessfully to contact him.

Neighbour Qaiser Naveed said: “It looks much better than it did previously and I hope we won’t have problems now.”

Mr Naveed, 30, who has lived next door for 12 months, said the council was right to step in.

He added: “It’s their duty to look at these matters and take on these problems.

“I’m looking forward to meeting new neighbours.”

Graham Stratford, the council’s head of community housing, said he was pleased that the owner had taken steps to bring the house back into use.

He said: “The order made the owner realise we were serious.

“ It’s now on the market and he has a buyer.”

Mr Stratford said the council had since obtained a second empty dwelling order from the tribunal for a house in Trinity Street, in the city centre, and has a further 50 homes in its sights.

He said owners had a duty to let out empty homes to people who needed somewhere to live.

He added: “It’s criminal to leave properties empty in this city. There’s a moral responsibility, with 5,000 people on the housing waiting list.”

He said the council had to prove a house had been empty for more than six months and was causing a problem to neighbours before it could obtain an order.

But the time limit is set to be increased to two years under Government plans.

Once an order is granted, owners are obliged to deal with the nuisance or sell the property. If they fail to act, the council could step in, renovate the house and rent it out.

Mr Stratford added: “In a city like Oxford, property doesn’t stay empty for long. But there are cases where people are trying to get the money together to redevelop and sometimes the owner doesn’t have the money to make use of the property.”