News stories like this one about Oxford's first EDMO of a home empty for 15 years are useful not only for the story themselves - a useful reminder of why we are here - but also for the comments of local residents. There's the odd idiot with some other agenda but they all tend to be positive about the Council taking action, whilst asking the same insightful questions that practitioners debate amongst themselves such as "why are we doing up the home for the owner at tax-payer's expense?"; "wouldn't it be betterr to CPO it?", "why has it taken the Council so long?". If the Coalition government's push to move empty homes up the agenda is successful, we can expect to see a maturer public debate about the issue.