Empty Homes to Happy Homes

Background

With a number of long-term empty private sector homes blighting otherwise stable neighbourhoods and communities on Teesside, Coast and Country teamed up with Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council's Empty Property Officer in a strategy to tackle the problem. These properties were having a particular impact on their efforts to regenerate local neighbourhoods through investment in Decent Homes improvements and general estate re-modelling.

The new partnership approached the HCA to discuss the potential for use of Temporary Social Housing Grant (TSHG) to bring the empty properties back into use. 

Project

The HCA provided £250,000 in funding for the scheme to deliver a minimum of 10 refurbished and re-occupied properties, paving the way for the Council to start contacting landlords about the scheme. Concentrating on a list of properties identified as top priority, Council staff set out to explain the aims of the scheme and benefits it could bring to landlords.

They found that owners of empty properties were generally not traditional landlords, but were often people who had inherited a property or simply been overwhelmed by the scale of works required to bring it up to standard.

Coast & Country  engaged two local charitable trusts, each with a strong track record of offering training and support to disadvantaged and unemployed residents. Community Campus 87 and East Cleveland Youth Homeless Trust (ECYHT) signed up to work with the partnership, offering basic construction training to local residents who could then play a part in modernising and improving the empty properties. The organisations’ good reputations helped to attract a steady stream of clients looking for opportunities.

This is how the scheme works:

• The Council contacts owners of empty properties to make them aware of the scheme and what it can offer.
• If an owner is interested, the Council carries out a full property survey and prepares a schedule of work to bring the property to a decent standard.
• Coast & Country enters into a lease with the owner (for a term of between 2 and 30 years) and manage the new tenancy for the owner, offering whatever tenancy support is necessary.
• The HCA grant pays for the improvement work to the property.
• Community Campus or ECYHT complete the required works.
• Coast & Country receives a management fee from the rental income to cover its costs.
• At the end of the lease period, the property reverts to the owner. 

Impact

For a small pilot scheme designed to improve around 10 empty homes, this scheme has had a major impact in neighbourhoods that were basically stable, but blighted by the presence of boarded-up properties.

Positive outcomes have included:

• Long-term empty homes improved and brought back into use.
• Property owners receiving rental income for the first time. 
• Additional affordable homes created to help satisfy local demand.
• Local people trained in basic construction skills.
• A strong partnership between local authority and housing provider.
• Blight removed and neighbours now living alongside modernised, occupied properties. 

Lessons Learned

• Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council has often found it hard to ‘sell’ the concept and its benefits to property owners – even though the landlord stands to receive 100% grant funding for the improvements and receive rental income for the first time. 
• Only about 10% of the owners contacted chose to sign up for the scheme. Redcar & Cleveland contacted over 100 owners in order to get approval to improve 11 homes – and this clearly leads to a significant amount of abortive work for the Empty Property Officer.  It is therefore worth starting dialogue with owners early.
• Engaging charitable or third sector organisations to carry out the training and property refurbishments, while it brings clear benefits, is a slower process than employing contractors. It is therefore important to have a degree of realism about what can be delivered and how quickly.
• Incorporating the worklessness agenda into the project brings a lot of added value to the scheme which is difficult to quantify. Issues around provider capacity should be explored to ensure delivery is achievable.
• It will be difficult to support future schemes with 100% grant funding. Different investment models will therefore be needed to enable any future investment to be recycled, thereby generating greater value for money and reducing the call on public sector funding.   

Reference

Iain Sim, Coast & Country Chief Executive, said: “This scheme operates on two important levels. 

“One is to help people learn construction skills to help improve their chances of finding work and the other is to make more affordable housing available to Redcar and Cleveland residents.

 “The project demonstrates how a range of agencies can work successfully in partnership to make a positive impact in the community.”

Michael McCorry,from Grangetown, joined the scheme as a trainee after being made redundant from a factory job. The 22-year-old, who has completed college painting and decorating courses and is studying for further NVQs, said: “The extra training and skills I’m picking up are helping to build my confidence. If it wasn’t for this project, I would still be unemployed and sitting in front of the TV. I hope this is the start to a career in painting and decorating.”

Carl Ditchburn,Co-ordinator at Community Campus 87, said: “This scheme helps build people’s confidence and equips them with skills to enhance their employability. All nine trainees have demonstrated commitment and focus and would be an asset to any construction business.”

Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Housing and Neighbourhood Renewal, Councillor Lynne Pallister,said: “This scheme helps tackle those properties that can have a negative impact on the local community, helps increase the supply of affordable housing in East Cleveland and also provides valuable work experience for local unemployed people.”

Former Corus steel worker Neil Robson, who emigrated to New Zealand for work and was unable to find employment when he returned home in 2009, is a mentor on the Empty Homes scheme. The 47-year-old decided to retrain and enrolled on a painting and decorating diploma course at Redcar & Cleveland College.

He then was offered a voluntary work placement by Community Campus 87, while he continued with his qualifications. To date, Neil has completed NVQ Levels 1, 2 and 3 in painting and decorating and plans to advance to assessor and supervisory courses.

Neil, who lives in Brotton, said: “My painting and decorating training put me in a good position to help with the empty homes refurbishment as a decorating supervisor and as a direct result of this project I have secured a six-month extension to my contract.” 

To find out more...

Anyone interested in applying for a placement should contact Community Campus on 01642 357 364.

Lesley Conroy, Coast and Country's Area Manager, can be contacted on 01642 836 006.

Neil Cawson, Investment and Regeneration Manager at the Homes and Communities Agency, can be contacted on 0191 497 7547.