Nottingham connected
• Extended
permitted
development
rights,
making the conversion of business-properties to
residential-properties easier
• Amendment of Empty Dwelling Management
Orders (EDMOs) to ensure orders are used to tackle
most problematic empty homes.
Following a spending review in 2010, Housing
minister Grant Shapps issued a letter to local
authorities detailing the settlement for housing at
£100 million within the Affordable Homes Programme
to bring empty homes back into use. The funding was
intended for use by conventional housing providers,
self-help, community and voluntary groups. The
Empty Homes Programme came to an end in March
2015, and was replaced by the new prospectus of
Affordable Homes Programme 2015 – 2018, which is
more focused on building new homes than bringing
empty homes to use.
The joint initiative between Empty Homes,
Ecology Building Society, central Government and
participating local authorities that was launched in
September 2013, providing empty home owners loans
of up to £15,000 at 5% fixed interest to encourage
bringing empty homes back into use, was abolished
in August 2014. The scheme was terminated on the
grounds of low take-up and governments wanting to
ensure that the allocated £3m would still be used to
bring empty homes back into use.
Currently, there are no government plans to provide
additional funding to help lower the amount of
empty homes in England.
THE CURRENT PICTURE OF EMPTY HOMES
The most recent data suggests there are nearly
206,000 empty homes across England, most of which
are long-term vacant houses. In February 2017, the
number of empty homes in the UK was reported
to be at the highest level in over 20 years, with the
housing surplus doubling between 1996 and 2014.
The number of these vacant properties has been
rising in over 30% of English local authorities in
recent years, with parts of Northern England and the
Midlands dominating the top-20-list of those with
the largest proportion of homes remaining empty for
over 6 months.
According to The June 2017 House of Commons
Briefing Paper on empty homes in England, empty
properties are recognised as having more serious
impacts on the viability of communities. They also
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have little effect on house prices, take up the British
country-side and are a general waste of resources. The
consequent initiatives to reduce empty housing were
identified as having vast regenerative, financial and
strategic benefits.
A 2016 research by Empty Homes national campaign
charity made the following recommendations in
relation to bringing empty homes back into use:
Local authorities should have an empty homes
strategy for their area including taking a casework
approach with owners of empty properties to advise
and support them to bring homes back into use.
Central Government should re-establish dedicated
grant funding programmes to bring empty properties
back into use and support for local authorities in areas
with high concentrations of empty properties.
Local authorities in high value areas should conduct
studies to understand the extent and impact of
properties being bought for their investment returns
and then left empty (buy-to-leave).
A 2017 research which surveyed 46 local authorities
and neighbourhoods with high levels of empty homes
indicated that areas with high concentrations of
Empty homes were more likely to experience poorer
housing standards and higher levels of deprivation. In
addition, in neighbourhoods with concentrations of
long-term empty homes were found to have a higher
level of poor quality private rented sector housing,
and a higher perceived level of social problems, such
as anti-social behaviour.
Areas with high levels of empty homes also discourage
new families form relocating to such areas and
impacts on the potential for new business in these
areas as businesses are reluctant to set-up in low-
value areas. Empty homes tend to attract anti-social
and criminal behaviour which can have a disruptive
and damaging effect on neighbourhoods, as well as
demand time and resources from local police, fire
services and residents. The government should break
the cycle and invest in neighbourhood improvement
schemes that both refurbish the housing stock and
tackle the underlying cause of empty homes.
There is also need for action through partnerships
especially through community-led research and
organisations. This is what Pathway Housing and
Mojatu Foundation is embarking on by proposing
to undertake a research focused on hidden
homelessness.