sustainable communities

Empty homes does not feature in the Mayor's introduction to this Housing Strategy, nor in Government's repsonse to the strategy, although rough sleeping is highlighted in both.  However, the Strategy does containe extensive reference to empty homes (36 mentions counted).  Section 2.3 contains the Mayoral vision to "deliver anf maintain a reduction in the number of long-term empty and derelict buildings - transforming these into homes for Londoners".

The key objective is to reduce the number of long-term empty dwellings to 1% or less of dwelling stock.  The current figure is 1.1% - so a reduction of 0.1% overall - or perhaps more usefully a 9% reduction in the total number of long-term empties. It will be interesting to see whether the figures are derived from CTB or HSSA returns and what the un-rounded figures are.

Interestingly, the audit of empty homes being co-ordinated by the London sub-regions is of homes empty for more than 1 year - a perhaps more practically useful defintion of a long-tem empty home. (NAEPP monitoring guidelines currently refer to 3 periods - under 6 months, 6 months to 2 years, and over 2 years.)

Boris seems to have gone native on EDMOs: "Where other measures fail, the Mayor encourages boroughs to use their powers of enforcement through legal sanctions, including the use of Compulsory Purchase Orders and EDMOs."  Boris obviously grasps what bringing longer-term empty homes back into use involves.

These are the detailed descriptors for the Strategic Approach to Housing KLOE

Under the new arrangements, the descriptors and evidence are only given in detail for Fair and Good levels of attainment.  The Audit Commission does not want to constrain innovation by dictating what should be considered as "Excellent"

The references to empty homes occur under KLOE 1.3 on page 8 and, more significantly, under KLOE 3.2 on page 17.

KLOE 3.2 is "There is an effective approach to improving the quality and use of existing housing and promoting sustainable neighbourhoods".

The descriptor for a Good rating is as follows:

"The council is making best use of existing housing through well-integrated investment programmes, effectively tartgeting of high-quality advice, grants and loans, use of enforcement powers, and good use of its own and external funding to address affordable warmth issues and meet Home Energy Conservation Act targets.  As a result, it is successful in reducing the levels of empty homes, tackling fuel poverty and improving private sector housing conditions. ..."

This 30-page document is of relevance to all empty homes practitioners not just those in London. There are many good (London-based) best-practice examples and case studies.

This is the government's position at the beginning of the 3-year HPDG funding programme.  (There was further consultation after this for years 2 and 3 of the programme).

Thanks to Graham Everett for drawing our attention to this useful Briefing paper which has links to other resources and organisations involved in empty homes work, including short-life bodies and co-ops as well as RSLs.

This is the first edition of A NAEPP Briefing paper that describes the results of an analysis of the published policies of the main political parties in respect of empty homes in the build-up to the 2010 General Election.  It was pubilshed Novermber 2009 and has since been updated. .

This links to the page (now archived) from where it is possible to download the ODPM-commissioned reports Empty Homes: Unlocking the Potential: A Case for Action and its companion Implementation Handbook.

NAEPP is credited with its involvement although we did not contribute nearly as much as we would have liked to as we were not consulted on the scope of its contents or format.