Bolsover and Mansfield District Councils

Background

Bolsover and Mansfield Districts sit alongside each other bordering the counties of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. Historically, both areas had coal mining and textiles as the principal local industries but in common with the national economy, the areas have since seen the decline of these sectors. This in turn has impacted on the job market with both Districts seeing a steady increase in unemployment over the years. In Bolsover, the majority of the population live in the four market towns of Bolsover, Shirebrook, Clowne and South Normanton, with smaller coal mining settlements inter dispersed across the district.

The total housing stock contains 34,109 properties and 1,812 of these are identified as being empty (1,553 are estimated to be from the private sector). Long term empty properties (over 6 months) consistently stand at around 700. There is a high concentration of pre 1919 dwellings, with 33% of these from the private sector, which also have the highest repair costs.

There is a lower level of owner occupation in the district and there is a stable private rented tenure of around 10%. In Mansfield the vast majority of the population live in Mansfield (including Mansfield Woodhouse), with Market Warsop a secondary centre, and the remainder living in the rural north of the district. The total housing stock stands at over 46,000 dwellings. Just over 37,000 of these are in the private sector (81%), around 6,700 owned by the Council (14.5%) and just over 2,000 owned by Housing Associations (4.5%) with an estimated 1,300 of these listed on the council tax database as standing empty. 385 properties have been empty over 6 months (private sector only).

There is also high demand for social housing across both districts with over 2,500 households on the waiting list in Bolsover and over 9,000 on the waiting list in Mansfield. Bolsover and Mansfield use different approaches to manage empty properties within their respective districts. In Bolsover, empty homes sits within the environmental health team and forms an additional part of the environmental health officer (EHO) enforcement role. The work on empty properties is generally reactive with the officer responding to complaints from the community on empty properties and working with owners to offer solutions through negotiation and where necessary enforcement action. The council have had an empty property strategy in place since 2003, which allowed the provision of empty property grants. These were mainly targeted at first time buyers and it was based on offering small grants (£5K) to bring properties back into use. Approximately 10 grants were achieved per year.

The strategy is due to be refreshed following the development of the Joint Private Sector Housing Strategy across the Housing Market Area (HMA). that includes Bassetlaw, Chesterfield and North east Derbyshire. HMAs were established to bring together neighbouring local authorities who were facing similar housing issues. The team have also targeted renewal areas such as Creswell Model Village where 100 ex-mining properties were brought back into use in 2006. Over 290 properties were refurbished in this conservation area.

Approximately 75% of the properties were owned by a private landlord and 60 vacant rental properties were sold on the open market following refurbishment, which helped address the balance of rental and owner occupier properties. Mansfield began to prioritise work around empty homes in 2009, with the appointment of a dedicated empty property officer in September of that year, working within the Strategic Housing team. The post was created following a re-structure within the Housing department and the Strategic Housing Manager highlighted the potential benefits of a dedicated resource, which included bringing additional council tax income back into the Local Authority budget.

The empty property officer sources empty properties using council tax data, focusing on those that have been empty over 6 months. A dialogue is opened with property owners through a letter to find out the reasons for properties being empty and to offer solutions to bring them back into use. Options include:

• Independently letting the property or letting through an Accredited Letting Agent
• Referral to Mansfield Associates Rented Solutions (MARS), which is a scheme introduced by the council to provide good quality homes for vulnerable people in Mansfield in conjunction with private sector landlords
• Re-developing the site
• Selling the asset to another party (including registered provider).
• Occupation by the owner Both District Councils have formed a very strong relationship, which they have successfully built up over a number of years.

This has mainly been through their involvement with Meden Valley Making Places Project (MVMP), which was established in 2003 to tackle housing decline in eight former mining communities in north Nottinghamshire and north-east Derbyshire. MVMP is a not-for-profit company, jointly owned by the HCA, and Bolsover and Mansfield Councils. MVMP partners also include South Yorkshire Housing Association (SYHA) and LHA – ASRA Group.

Project

The main priorities for Bolsover and Mansfield were to reduce the number of empty properties within the districts, maximise the impact on the housing register and support local employment and training. Empty properties are a lost resource and can often be at the heart of environmental and nuisance issues within a community. Both Councils were keen to explore how they could work together on common empty homes issues, through their existing partnership and projects.

The team’s already had a strong track record of working collaboratively on the successful MVMP project and it was agreed to strengthen this further through an empty homes pilot scheme. The scheme will bring 10 empty properties back into use as affordable housing that have been empty for in excess of 6 months. It will deliver a programme of low carbon refurbishments to a range of existing empty homes within the MVMP region and will offer further benefits to the local community by providing local employment and training opportunities. If the pilot is successful, further roll-out will be considered in the Housing Market areas (HMA) of Sherwood Forest (incorporating Mansfield, Ashfield and Newark & Sherwood District Councils) and North Derbyshire and Bassetlaw. The dedicated empty property officer at Mansfield is working on behalf of both Councils on this project.

Ten properties have been purchased (split equally across the two districts) and Groundwork Crestra (the training arm of Groundwork Creswell, Ashfield and Mansfield) were appointed to undertake the renovations, utilising local trainees via the Future Jobs Fund (FJF). There is a steady flow of FJF trainees working on the scheme at any one time (12 moved onto the project in April) and the activities they are involved with include property clearance, plastering, painting and decorating. It is hoped that the new skills and confidence gained will help the trainees to secure permanent jobs either with Groundwork or elsewhere in the future. The pilot scheme is managed, co-ordinated and monitored by the MVMP steering group who meet monthly and include representatives from Bolsover and Mansfield. A delivery plan is in place, which is regularly reviewed and it is planned that the scheme will be complete overall by September 2011.

The scheme will be evaluated externally and will form part of wider national research funded by the EAGA partnership, which is investigating the role that domestic renewable energy technologies can play in alleviating fuel poverty in the UK. Bolsover and Mansfield both received £53,000 funding from CLG (£106,000 in total) to support empty homes work. £5,000 will be used to support purchase and repair of each property as part of the MVMP pilot scheme (£50,000 in total for 10 properties). Bolsover have used £1,500 to fund the support provided by the empty homes officer in Mansfield. New case management software is being purchased by Mansfield utilising the balance of their CLG funding, to help the team manage empty homes activity more effectively.

Bolsover are currently exploring potential options for the remaining balance of funds through appointing dedicated empty property support. Bolsover are currently refreshing their empty property strategy and empty properties has been identified as a corporate priority. New targets will be set for bringing empty properties back into use as part of the new strategy. It will also form part of the wider Joint Private Sector Housing strategy across the HMA. A strategic alliance with North East Derbyshire Council has recently been established and the two councils are restructuring, sharing a Chief Executive Officer and Senior Management Team. The Environmental Health services across both authorities are currently being reviewed. This review and alliance provides a real opportunity to consider dedicated support on empty homes, potentially utilising the remaining funds.

In Mansfield empty homes is a corporate priority and features in the corporate plan 2010-20 and also forms part of the wider Sherwood Forest Area Housing strategy 2008-18, which includes Ashfield, Newark and Sherwood (HMA area). The team continue to use the best value indicators (number of empty properties and number of empty properties brought back into use) as local indicators to measure performance. Robust targets for bringing properties back into use have been set for the next three years: 2011/12 – 100 2012/13 – 110 2013/14 – 121.

Impact

The MVMP pilot scheme is nearing completion with four properties renovated and on the lettings market awaiting tenants. Six properties will be completed by September 2011.

An end of project review will be completed in December 2011 to provide evidence of best practice, lessons learned and recommendations for future activity. In terms of wider empty properties work, Mansfield have returned 81 properties to use in the period April 10 – March 11 mainly through sustained negotiation with the owners.

This already proves the successes of the dedicated pro-active approach, as prior to this around three properties were being brought back into use each year. 30 of these properties were brought back into use through the MARS scheme where the empty property officer provides a brokerage role by signposting owners to the MARS team in the Council’s Housing Needs Service.

Both teams are building up excellent relations with teams across their respective authorities on wider empty properties work. These include the revenues team, wider housing teams, building control, planning (on section 215 notices) and the council tax team. Additionally for Bolsover, the anti social behaviour team and environmental health and for Mansfield the MARS team.

The collaborative approach on empty homes work through the MVMP scheme has continued to reinforce excellent partner relations across both councils and externally:

• The empty property officer at Mansfield has a clear understanding of his role to co-ordinate the MVMP pilot scheme, regularly monitoring activities and communicating progress to the MVMP steering group. The steering group are able to make informed decisions and broker solutions on any issues that arise.
• The MVMP steering group has a solid foundation of partners that continue to communicate effectively and work together proactively to provide housing regeneration solutions for the Mansfield and Bolsover districts
• The empty property officer at Mansfield has increased his knowledge and understanding of the business through relevant training and development opportunities. He is more confident in dealing with empty property issues, providing advice and offering solutions to owners, tenants and partners. It is anticipated that some of the longer term benefits and impact of the MVMP pilot scheme will be:
• The scheme is providing affordable housing options for the community and strives to ensure that no-one living in the properties will be in fuel poverty.
• The refurbished properties meet the equivalent energy performance of a new build property to Level 3 of the Code for Sustainable Homes.
• Tenants will be educated on the use of the technology within their homes and are taking steps to be more energy efficient.
• The scheme is providing local people with new skills, which will increase confidence and help them to secure jobs in the constructions industry, through other employment, training or education.

Lessons Learned

• When initiating a new project prepare a strong business case that includes realistic, costs, resources and timescales. Remember retrofitting schemes maybe more costly than you think!
• Investing some time to learn from previous projects can help you when deciding on the most effective delivery option.
• Understanding the individual areas of expertise of each project partner and what they can offer to the project, fosters a collaborative partnership culture and can help to facilitate shared ownership and buy-in from the outset.
• Providing training and development opportunities for staff to fulfil their role and co-ordinate wider projects, builds internal team capacity and maximises service delivery.

Reference

Rob Purser Strategic
Housing Manager
Mansfield District Council
Civic Centre
Chesterfield Road South, Mansfield
Nottinghamshire
NG19 7BH
www.mansfield.gov.uk
rpurser@mansfield.gov.uk

Samantha Bentley
Senior Environmental Health Officer Residential
Bolsover District Council
Sherwood Lodge, Bolsover
S44 6NF
www.bolsover.gov.uk