Homes From Empty Homes

Channel 4’s Restoration Man is set to return for a new series and is looking for owners of historic buildings to take part.  Presented by the architect George Clarke, Restoration Man follows new owners ready to restore, convert and breathe new life into vulnerable and forgotten buildings across the UK.

George offers his expertise to the individuals who have bought these historic buildings and are passionate about turning them into their dream homes. As well as practical advice, George looks into the history of each building, why they were built and how they’ve [...]

These are the words of Grace Dent in the Independent reporting the pioneering new homesteading scheme that opened for applications this week in Stoke on Trent.  Applications also opened for a similar scheme in Liverpool. A total of 55 empty houses are available for local people to buy at £1 each in the two cities.

Both schemes require that buyers renovate the house and live there for five years.

Both Schemes are proving incredibly popular with over 600 applications received in the first 24 hours in Stoke and over 4,000 expressions of interest received in Liverpool. [...]

One hundred and fifteen billion pounds is tied up in the value of empty homes in England (that’s the equivalent of 8% of Britain’s £1.5bn national debt).

The research calculated the sale value of empty homes in England. Second homes, holiday homes and uninhabitable homes were not included. We are grateful to Endsleigh for carrying out the research and providing the graphic showing the regional breakdown.

The London empty homes grants programme is open for applications. It offers grants for investment partners, charities and community groups to bring empty property into affordable housing use.  The Greater London Authority have extended the closing date until 21st May.

Our thanks to Savaills for this fascinating analysis of census data. The map of England and Wales shows the distribution of both empty homes and unoccupied second homes. it plots vacancy rates rather than the numbers of homes which means rural areas with relatively low number of homes but proportions of second homes tend to show up more than dense urban areas with high number of vacant homes but low vacancy rates.

This week sees the introduction of a radical overhaul of the way council tax is charged on empty homes in England. Previously there was a series of discounts and exemptions that meant that the council tax charged on most empty homes was less than for occupied homes. The situation has now reversed meaning that council tax on most empty homes will be the same or even more than on occupied homes.

The purpose of these changes is two-fold, firstly they are intended to give a financial incentive for owners to get empty homes back into use, but they are also intended [...]

In a generally critical report the government’s auditors The National Audit Office has concluded that the New Homes Bonus is having a positive impact in bringing empty homes into use.  It highlighted a number of failings in the system  particularly on the impact on new housebuildings. But on its effect on bringing empty hmes into use it concludes that the bonus:

 Is incentivising local authorities to bring empty homes back into use
Has been used to maintain local authorities’ capacity to identify and bring empty homes back into use
Has helped maintain a downward trend in the number of empty [...]

Please note that the government’s empty homes grants programme for England is now closed except in London where it will remain open to applications until 21 May. All three programmes offer capital grants to pay for the renovation of empty property that is brought into affordable use.

The Community Grants Programme offering grants for charities, community groups and social enterprises for properties in England. Applications close on 25th March

The HCA programme offers grants for empty properties in England but not in London in the same circumstance for HCA investment partners (housing associations and local authorities)  Applications also close on 25th March.

The [...]

George Clarke is getting empty homes into use again in his new TV show Secret Millions.  The first in a series to be broadcast on Channel 4,  sees George testing an inspired idea that tackles both unemployment and empty homes.  In an emotional rollercoaster the programme shows young people being given the opportunity to receive training from retired builders while renovating a derelict house.

Review here,Watch it here

The Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) is calling on the chancellor of the exchequer to cut Stamp Duty on sales of empty homes in next month’s budget. The CIH said that the policy could bring 5,000 properties a year into use, at a cost of £50 million. Their proposal would require landlords who bennefitted form the scheme to enter into an agreement to keep any properties let as rented accommodation for a set period, possibly of up to five years.  More on the story here

Remember to watch Britain’s Empty Homes on BBC ONE @ 11.45. 

Following four series of Britain’s Empty Homes.  Britian’s Empty Homes Revisited looks back at some of the people and houses covered in the previous series and brings the stories up to date. The series was broadcast on weekdays on BBC1 at 11.45AM until 8th March. You can catch up with the lst few episodes on iplayer here

The Channel 4 TV series The Great British Property Scandal has been nominated for an Emmy. The series is one of four international nominees in the digital prgram: non fiction category awarded by the the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. The TV series broadcast in 2011 and 2012 highlighted and campaigned for change on the scandal of empty homes. We were delighted to be advisors to the series, and we will be continuing its work. We will shortly inherit the digital content for the series including the Report Empty Homes [...]

Following the huge demand for houses in a similar scheme in Stoke

The house for £1 concept is starting in Liverpool . Twenty empty houses are soon to be offered for sale in three areas of the city.

Houses will be sold with a condition that the new owners renovate the houses to a decent homes standard. The homes were originally included in the housing market renewal programme, and were going to be demolished or renovated by the council. But the ending of government grants that supported the programme has caused Liverpool [...]

Housing minister Mark Prisk has announced the latest empty homes figures for England. These, along with the number of net additions (numbers of new homes built) governs the amount of New Homes Bonus reward grant that each council receives.

The figures show most areas had big reductions in empty homes with areas such as Hackney, Cornwall and Salford seeing record annual reductions of around 800 each.  But one hundred councils saw their vacancy rates rise,  the biggest rise was in Manchester where an additional 924 homes became empty during the year.

In total there [...]

Influential think -tank Centre for Cities concludes that national policies to increase housebuilding are working against bringing vacant properties into use in the north. It’s new report Cities Outlook says bringing empty homes into use is likely to be more beneficial than building new houses in areas with lower house prices.

But national housing policies are such as New Homes Bonus, designed to increase housing supply, may be unhelpful in areas with lower house prices by encouraging house building when improving the exisiting housing would be better.

It reccomends that other measures such [...]