A former housing officer planning to return to live in Birmingham has found his family home has been taken away by the local authority - after lying empty for more than a decade.

Richard Pout, who now lives in London, had planned to return to his home city after being diagnosed with a heart condition.

He hoped to move back to the house in Highmore Drive, Bartley Green, where he spent much of his teenage years and early adulthood.

However, at the start of this year it was boarded up and effectively put under the ownership of Birmingham City Council.

Mr Pout, who was born in Harborne and attended Kind Edward VI Camp Hill School for Boys, can now visit only under supervision and by arrangement with the authority.

The local authority said the house had been left empty and derelict for more than 16 years and Mr Pout was given ample opportunity to do something about it.

But the 59-year-old said: "I have been trodden on rough-shod by uncaring officers from the council and have been treated with absolute disdain and disregard.

"It makes me feel very saddened and upset by the way I have been treated by the city I was born in and wanted to come back to live in."

The downstairs windows have been covered with metal plates and a security door installed at the front entrance. Many of his possessions have been put into storage.

"The bailiff threw a brand new heater and a brand new lamp into a skip outside," he said.

"They are going to auction my house and I will get compensation but because of the condition they have left it in they have very seriously devalued the property."

Mr Pout claimed the authority failed to notify him properly as the process progressed.

But the council said it had given him plenty of warning and a compulsory purchase order was issued in November 2005 after he failed to bring the property back into occupation despite "lengthy communications".

Following a public inquiry in 2006, the council became the owner of the property in May 2007.

Councillor John Lines, cabinet member for housing, said: "The success Birmingham has had in tackling empty properties has been considerable.

"We cannot allow our neighbourhoods to be blighted by properties that have been left empty for over 16 years, causing concern and distress to local people."

Since its inception in January 2006, the council's Empty Property team has brought about the improvement and re-occupation of 367 privately-owned empty properties. The authority has issued 137 compulsory purchase orders since 1998.

Mr Pout, whose mother worked as a district nurse and father an engineer locally, said: "Technically it was unoccupied. Our mistake was not living permanently in my late mother's house. I visited it regularly, though a few years ago it was left for a few months while I was hospitalised."