Campaign Action
Of England’s three quarters of a million empty homes nearly half of them are long-term empty. That’s enough homes to house a million people. Whilst some homes are empty for transactional reasons (e.g they are being refurbished, are for sale or to let) the rest are to some extent stuck. A significant minority of them have been totally abandoned.
Not only that, these same properties cause huge problems for people who live around them. Empty property attracts petty crime, fly tipping, vandalism and occasionally arson. Areas with high numbers of empty homes can easily fall into a spiral of decline. With less customers living nearby, shops and services close leading to further decline.
Ignoring the potential of empty homes to meet housing supply is a costly environmental mistake. Whilst Britain needs more homes, they don’t all have to be built form scratch. Creating them from empty property saves substantial amounts of embodied carbon dioxide over building new houses, and minimises the amount of land used for development. With house building rates at thier lowest levels since the 1920s there are few other viable ways of providing housing now anyway.
Empty Homes believes that with unprecedented housing need, and unfolding environmental crises, the waste of empty homes cannot be allowed to continue.
We are calling on the government and councils to:
1 – Stop the Waste of temporarily vacant homes: A vast supply of housing is ignored by developers and land owners that could easily be turned into housing at little or no cost. Empty Homes is campaigning to maximise the use of Short life housing and property guardian schemes.
Shortlife Housing: TSHG is a small grant scheme offered by the HCA. It is there to help pay for costs of making empty properties available for temporary use (2 to 30 years) Average grants are £10,000 about property. Last year the budget was tiny about £2million. In various guises this grant has been available since the 1980s but use of it has declined. The reason in our view is that the only organisations who can claim it are RSLs. They are not the organisations they were 30 years ago and few are involved in temporary housing or refurb anymore. In their place a myriad of small organisations: housing coops, small homelessness charities, community self help housing groups have grown up. These organisations are doing fantastic work operating short-life housing schemes etc. However they have no access to grant funding. Most operate on charitable donations and, most only use empty social housing, as they are unable to compete for private empty property.
We think that TSHG needs to go to those who can use it. This would involve the government giving greater flexibility to HCA so it can offer the grant to non- RSLs . Significantly the HCA have changed their view on TSHG significantly, a year ago they were advocating removing it, now they are talking about extending it. I raised this point with Sir Bob Kerslake (HCA CEO) last year, and he is supportive of our proposal.
Property Guardian Schemes: Many homes are empty because they are awaiting redevelopment or demolition. Some developments result in homes lying empty for years. There are however many organisations and companies that can make good use of the property and provide homes for people at low cost. Short life housing Coops , some housing associations and Property Guardian companies provide huge benefits providing housing to those in need, additional rental income and ensures that empty property doesn’t fall victim to crime and vandalism We believe it is vital that these options are properly explored by developers and property owners.
2 – End the scandal of public empty homes: Empty Homes is calling on the government to make more efficient use of the 100,000 homes owned by public sector landlords. And to respond properly to public empty homes reported to them under the PROD mechanism
Many government departments and agencies are very large landlords. Between them government and councils own 100,000 empty homes. There are often good reasons why the homes became empty in the first place. Many were deliberately emptied out to allow regenerations schemes or road widening to take place. In many cases the original schemes have been shelved, recent public sector cuts have exacerbated this problem. Whatever the original reason we don’t think it is acceptable for homes to be left empty. If regenerations schemes are delayed homes can be used for temporary housing. If the schemes are cancelled homes can be sold.
We believe that government could do more to help minimise the numbers of publicly owned empty homes by:
· Publish an annual report of the state of public sector empty homes.
· Introduce a Community Right to Use empty property
· Issue guidance to government departments and agencies on the prompt disposal of empty homes.
3 – Councils should be encouraged to act by extending the government’s proposed New Homes Bonus council tax incentive scheme (which rewards councils for getting homes built) to long-term empty homes returned to use.
The government has introduced a grant that pays councils a reward for each empty home returned to use in its area that adds to housing supply. This reward can range form about £5,500 to about £18,000 depending on the council tax band of the property. We call on councils to reinvest at least some of this reward in measures that help bring more empty homes into use.
More information on Council Tax
4 – Abolish public subsidy for leaving homes empty: Empty Homes is calling on the government to remove the council tax discount currently paid to owners who keep their property empty.
Empty Homes believes that the current system of exemptions and discounts from council tax for owners of empty homes acts as a perverse incentive to keep properties empty.
Currently most homes are exempt from council tax for the six months that they are empty. This can be extended to up to twelve months with agreement of the local authority. Thereafter a 50% discount applies for as long as the property is left empty. Local authorities have the discretion to set a different level of discount including removing the discount altogether if they wish. Since this discretion was introduced in 2003 only about half of all local authorities have altered their level of discount. Many of the local authorities that have not made a change are the ones with the largest numbers of empty homes in their area.
Empty Homes believes that the current system is a public subsidy for keeping properties empty. We see no benefit to maintaining the discount and we are calling on government to abolish the discount altogether. We would also like to see government investigate options for introducing the discretion for local authorities to introduce higher punitive levels of council tax for very long term empty homes. The government is currently considering these options and has instigated its own review this is due to be complete in late spring 2008.
More information on Council Tax
5 – Cut the VAT: Empty Homes has joined a national coalition calling for VAT on refurbishing empty homes to be cut to 5% to stimulate refurbishment of empty homes.
There are significant tax breaks for refurbishment of empty homes. VAT on refurbishment of home empty for more than two years should be charged at %5 and for properties empty for more than ten years VAT is zero-rated. In addition there is capital allowance for shop owners that allows them to offset the costs of refurbishment of empty flats above shops against the profits of the business.
These tax breaks are not promoted and barely used. We call on the government to actively promote these tax breaks.
