Homes From Empty Homes

We’re delighted that Stoke City Council have announced the first large scale homesteading programme in the UK in a decade. Their programme, that we helped the council develop, will see empty homes sold to people on low incomes for £1 each. The homes are hard to let council houses and homes the council had previously acquired for regeneration schemes that can no longer go ahead

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24 Dash: Stoke-on-Trent City Council wants to offer loans of £30,000 to families hit by housing benefit cuts to refurbish empty homes which it will sell to them for a £1.

The measure is part of a move by the council to support tenants hit by welfare reform, bring back into use empty homes and promote home ownership.

From next April some 660,000 working age claimants will face housing benefit cuts of £56 a month on average for having “spare” bedrooms. In addition to the under-occupancy penalties, a household benefit cap will also apply limiting families to £500 a week.

The council is match-funding £1.5m of the Government’s empty homes funding with £1.5m from its own capital allowance to get the scheme up and running.

The number of properties is as yet unconfirmed but it’s looking at voids in Portland and Bond Street in the city initially targeting hard to let homes owned by social landlords who can’t afford to do them up.

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