Bidding opens for extra £50m empty homes cash

Published by Ross Macmillan for 24dash.com in Housing and also in Communities, Local Government

Councils and housing providers are being urged to bid for the Government's £50m funding to help bring back into use clusters of empty homes.

The funding is additional to the £100m for empty homes already confirmed as part of the Affordable Homes Programme.

The funding is intended to tackle "concentrations of poor quality, empty homes in low demand areas".

Councils and landlords who wish to apply will be required to match the funding they receive - bringing the total investment to £100 million.

The programme is open to councils and the Homes and Communities Agency's (HCA) investment partners who can demonstrate that proposed schemes meet the following criteria: 

• A minimum of 100 homes brought back into use
• Delivery is within a distinct, compact area (ward or smaller) with over 10% of homes empty, and each cluster representing more than 25 empty homes
• Clear and demonstrable high level strategic fit and community support - as well as evidence of local authority commitment if the local authority is not the lead bidder
• In principle, commitment to providing 100% match funding

Communities Minister Andrew Stunell said: "It's shocking that hundreds of thousands of houses sit unoccupied while people across the country are in need of a home of their own. Thousands of homes have already been brought back into use in the last year - but there are still many areas where there are whole streets of abandoned homes.

"That's why today I'm offering Government cash, backed up by the investment of communities themselves, for a £100 million boost to breathe new life into these areas and providing homes to those in need.

"I want my ambition to be matched by the communities that apply for this cash injection, with local people backing locally-led efforts to bring at least 100 empty homes in their area back into use. And in addition, these areas will receive further financial recognition for their efforts through the New Homes Bonus."

Government figures, released in December last year, showed that in 2011 the numbers of long-term empty homes - those vacant for six months or more - had fallen by over 21,000 – the biggest year-on-year drop since 2004.

There are now 279,000 long-term empty homes across England. The total number of vacant dwellings in the country now stands at 720,000.

You can download the information here.