Bolton: A coordinated approach to managing empty homes

Background

 Bolton is surrounded by several smaller towns and villages which together form the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, of which Bolton is the largest settlement and administrative centre.

The private housing stock contains 90,987 properties and from council tax information 3633 of these properties were identified as being empty as at 1st April 2010. There is an over representation of terraced and ageing housing in poor condition and these are often owned and/or occupied by elderly and vulnerable people, some of which are unable to keep their properties in a decent state of repair. However, terraced housing continues to be a popular option for many people and is often the most accessible for first time buyers and people on low incomes.

There is added pressure to increase the supply of affordable housing in the borough to try and make an impact on the number of people on the housing register (which currently stands at 25,309 at the of end quarter 2, and 16,000 of these have been actively seeking accommodation through the Choice Based Lettings System). Without this increase in supply, the number of applicants on the housing register would continue to rise, along with the number of people who are unable to access the housing market due to the lack of availability of mortgages.

The council’s approach to managing empty properties was mainly reactive due to the lack of a dedicated staff resource, with one officer analysing data and responding to complaints from residents, in addition to their other housing and public health duties. Bolton recognised the need to transform their methods in order to reduce the number of empty properties within the borough and maximise the impact on the housing register. In September 2009 a dedicated empty homes co-ordinator was appointed which was funded through the Area Based Grant for 18 months.

The CLG funding of £84,000 will allow this post to be fully funded and continue for a further two years from April 2011.
 

Project

Bolton’s main priority was to reduce the number of properties that had been empty the longest (over two years and former right to buy over six months). The properties in this category stand at 3,005 (as at October 2010).

The empty homes co-ordinator identified the properties in this category with support from council tax data and has implemented a system which proactively manages the empty homes workload for 14 members of staff within the Housing and Public Health Unit.

This involves the co-ordinator sourcing and finding the properties, then opening up a dialogue with home owners through a 3 stage letter and questionnaire process, which is sent out bi-annually. The questionnaire explores the background to the property, the reasons for it being empty and any advice or support required with renovation, renting or selling the property. There is a good level of response to the letters and questionnaire with approximately one third of owners replying at each stage. The replies are then tailored individually to reflect the needs of the owners.

When three letters have been sent to a property and the owner has not responded, the property is prioritised with an external inspection and a priority ranking is applied. The highest ranking properties are then allocated to an officer within the unit.

The officer works with the owner over a period of six months to encourage them to bring the property back into use through negotiation. If after this time there has not been any progress, the officer will make a case for formal action, including enforced sale, empty dwelling management order (EDMO) or improvement notice. Most of the properties are being brought back into use through successful negotiation with the owners and enforcement routes are utilised when required.

The co-ordinator has a strong records system in place to manage and monitor empty properties, using the environmental health database, Civica to accurately record data and assess progress. A robust action plan is employed to review the progress of the overall programme which includes stretching targets for bringing empty properties back into use over the next three years (2010-2013).

The unit have built up excellent partnership relations across the council and externally through its work to co-ordinate the empty properties operational group (EHOG), which drives delivery on empty homes and monitors progress against the action plan. The group has representation from a number of other units including: a housing strategy manager, officers from private sector renewal team and Bolton at Home, which is now a new Registered Provider (RP) having being created from the recent Stock Transfer from the Council, other partner RP’s are involved through the Bolton Community Homes housing partnership on specific projects. The Principal Environmental Health Officer and Empty Homes Co-ordinator also attend the wider Greater Manchester Empty Properties Group, which focuses on sharing best practice and peer support across the local authorities in this sub region.

The empty homes agenda is a significant priority for the council and forms a key element of the Private Sector Housing Renewal Strategy 2010-2013 which is due for publication shortly. This outlines Bolton’s strategy in relation to bringing empty properties back into use.

Promotional avenues are being maximised through an empty homes hotline number, dedicated e-mail address, service leaflet and web pages. The unit have received strong press coverage through the Bolton News on the successes with EDMOs. Community activity is channelled through Bolton Scene, the council’s quarterly publication.
 

Impact

Bolton have brought 192^[1] properties back into use in the period April-December 2010 and are well on course to achieve the target set of 203 for the year, which demonstrates the success of the Housing and Public Health Unit’s co-ordinated approach.   Targets for future years are being revised and increased due to the achievements of the team.   Properties have been returned to use mainly through skilful negotiation with the owners and the EDMO route is also proving a real success story, with two orders in place (one final and one interim) and an application has been completed and submitted on a third property.

One property that has been brought back into use by a final EDMO had been empty for over 20 years, attracting vandals and blighting a popular residential street.  Improvements included roof work, repointing, new windows, installation of a new boiler and heating system, and fitting a new kitchen and bathroom.  The EDMO was widely publicised in the local press with a quote from the council’s executive member for housing:

“Our empty homes team has been actively trying to encourage the owner to bring the property back into use for the past four years, without success.  Serving the final order was the last resort for us but we are committed to bringing as many homes back into use as we can” 

Bolton, in August 2010 was granted a second interim EDMO on a property which had been empty for over 2 years, was in reasonably good condition and only needed minor repairs.  It was decided to take formal action because the owner missed a number of deadlines, combined with the property being located in a renewal area, which has also previously benefited from grant work through a group repair scheme.  The interim EDMO has been successful as the landlord has agreed to rent it out via the council’s lease management scheme, without the need to serve the final EDMO. 

The Unit has developed an EDMOs procedure manual, which contains all the documentation required and useful pointers on the relevant course of action.  This has been a really useful tool and has helped to accelerate the process.   Key learning points and best practice have been shared with other authorities across the country at meetings and workshops.

The dedicated co-ordinated approach has strengthened team and partnership working internally and externally: 

• Staff within the unit are more proactive and have a clear understanding of the requirements of their role and the role of the wider team and partners on empty properties work. 
• The portfolio holder has a greater awareness of the work around empty properties and is fully engaged.
• The unit have delegated powers from the planning team to serve section 215 notices, which has provided a fresh approach and supported with internal capacity issues.
• Bolton’s Empty Homes Group (EHOG) have re-focused and have had a strong influence in developing the Private Sector Housing Renewal Strategy.  They have revised and refreshed the Empty Homes Action Plan, which provides a clear direction of travel for bringing empty properties back into use over the next two years.
• The Principal EHO attends the wider Greater Manchester Empty Properties Group, which is a useful vehicle to share experiences, key lessons learned and best practice with other Local Authorities in the region (particularly around EDMOs).

The three stage letter and questionnaire process has been shared throughout the Greater Manchester sub region.
 

Lessons Learned

• Appointing a dedicated empty homes co-ordinator to organise and monitor the empty homes team workload increases capacity, and provides greater clarity on roles and responsibilities ensuring a more effective and efficient service. 
• Employing robust systems and processes from the outset provides a crucial mechanism to accurately monitor, review and record progress within agreed timescales.
• Ensuring you have a strong grasp of how to interrogate and interpret empty homes data will provide a useful starting point (or benchmark) and can help when setting robust targets and priorities.
• Understanding that every property has its own story and in many cases it can take a long period of time to return them to use.   Each property requires different levels of support and its important to recognise that the strongest successes are often on the quality and outcomes of the intervention rather than the physical outputs.
• Investing some time to explore untested methods to tackle enforcement now can achieve successful results in the longer term.   Finding out how other authorities have dealt with enforcement and adapting current procedures can help when embarking on new routes e.g. consider handling an EDMO similar to a prosecution file.

Reference

Gail Harrison

Principal Environmental Health Officer

Housing and Public Health Unit

Bolton Council, Room 2, Farnworth Town Hall, Market Street, Farnworth, Bolton, BL4  7PD

www.bolton.gov.uk

gail.harrison@bolton.gov.uk