Bookself Mojatu.com Mojatu Nottingham Magazine Issue M026 | Page 23

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 Community 23 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.