Healey pledges £1 million cash boost for empty homes crackdown » Housing » 24dash.com

Housing Minister John Healey today announced extra support for councils to step up efforts to get empty homes back in use and reduce anti-social behaviour, including cash for an intensive crackdown in 17 local authority areas with known problems.

Empty homes, particularly those in disrepair, can be a magnet for vandalism, drug-taking, gangs or other forms of anti-social behaviour.

Councils already have tough legal powers to force private landlords to sort out their properties and can even take over properties if necessary, but tenants and landlords often don't know about these powers, reducing their effectiveness.

That's why Mr Healey is today announcing a £1 million boost to council efforts to train key staff on how best to get empty homes back in use, with cash for 17 councils where anti-social behaviour focused around empty homes is a real concern and residents want to see more effective local action.

The main response for councils will be through frontline workers and specialist teams with the expertise to lead the crackdown. This will include action to renovate derelict houses for letting out as social homes, and the use of private funding to turn empty homes into properties that allow local people the chance to take a more affordable step onto the housing ladder.

Today's announcement is part of the new drive to tackle anti-social behaviour announced in November.

The drive will equip up to 10,000 front line workers and community champions, including 1,000 local tenants, with the skills to use tough powers to solve problems in their area.

While many councils and social landlords are already working with the police to tackle anti-social behaviour, Ministers are determined to see more effective co-operation to give the public greater confidence that action is being taken.

John Healey said: "Empty houses are both a blight on communities and a waste of much needed homes. Councils already have strong legal powers to force the owners of empty properties to act and if necessary take over homes, but these powers are often neither used or understood properly.

"I want councils using every tool available so that people can see action being taken against anti-social behaviour in their area.

"That's why I'm backing seventeen councils in areas where empty homes have been a magnet for vandalism, threatening behaviour or other types of anti-social activities.

"They will get training for frontline workers and tenants so they understand how they can use their legal powers. And they will get the cash they need to renovate and re-let empty homes back, reviving run-down areas of their communities."

Home Office Minister David Hanson said: "Tackling anti-social behaviour is not just about using tough tools and powers to prevent people intimidating their neighbours and running down their communities.

"It is also about creating safe and confident communities where there is no room for this type of behaviour.

"We know derelict homes can often be a catalyst for crime and anti-social behaviour - this extra funding will help address that problem, making a real and visible difference to these communities."

The 17 local authority areas that will receive funding are:

• Torbay will employ a new Empty Homes Officer and target their attention at their 68 worst properties, most of which have been empty for more than 10 years.
• St Helens will appoint a housing association to help tackle serious antisocial behaviour problems including drug trading, squatting in vacant flats and vandalism in a problem apartment block and let out the vacant flats.
• Ipswich will intervene and offer help to the owners and managers of empty flats in the Docklands area to make the flats available to the private rented market.
• Mansfield and Bolsover will adopt a cross-boundary empty homes strategy to engage with local landlords and tackle a much greater number of empty homes. This will be led by a new joint empty homes officer.
• Luton will engage with the public to understand where problematic empty homes are and develop an action plan to help get these properties back into use. They also plan to recruit an additional officer to double their capacity to tackle the problem of empty homes.
• Bolton will renovate row of problem houses and then rent them out as social housing through their Arms-length Management Organisation.
• Liverpool will target a small terrace of homes that are all empty and work with a housing association to help local people renovate the homes.
• Stoke aims to use private funding to enable local people to buy and renovate empty homes.
• Doncaster will carry out a survey and appoint additional staff to implement their new strategy.
• Corby, East Northamptonshire and South Northamptonshire will engage in a cross boundary approach. An empty homes officer will be appointed to work across the three councils.
• Milton Keynes will fund a post to carry out Empty Dwelling Management Orders on its most problematic empty homes.
• Durham will develop a wider strategy and implement it with greater staff resource.
• Cornwall will develop an empty homes strategy and appoint a coordinator together with a training programme for staff to increase skill levels and enable long-term empty homes to be tackled.
• Warwick will carry out a survey to identify which properties require their intervention. And will develop a two year programme engaging with the community on homes that are causing the greatest problems and targeting action at getting them into use.

The new funding is part of the Government's drive to take action against empty homes and the anti-social behaviour associated with them. It will give councils the support they need to take real action to address a highly visible problem affecting the quality of people's day to day lives.