Reduce text sizeIncrease text sizeDefault coloursImproved contrastHigh contrastEmpty homes in England account for 3% of the total housing stock. According to Council Tax Data collected by local authorities, there were 734,000 vacant dwellings at the end of September 2010. Out of those, 301,000 are in the private sector, which accounts for 1.6% of all private sector stock. Empty homes brought back into use can contribute to the housing supply to meet local needs and help tackle homelessness, prevent neighbourhood decline and regenerate areas.
Bringing empty homes back into use is a priority for the Coalition Government. As part of the Comprehensive Spending Review in October 2010, the Government announced a £100m fund to bring more empty homes back into use. The Government followed this up by publishing its Housing Strategy on 21 November 2011, of which an important part is its strategy for tackling empty properties.
The strategy included details of the £100m capital funding from within the 2011-15 Affordable Homes Programme that had been set aside to tackle long-term empty properties which would not come back into use without additional financial intervention. It’s intended that this funding will deliver at least 3,300 Affordable Homes by March 2015.
£70m of this funding has been assigned to the HCA to deliver a programme to bring empty properties back in to use as affordable housing. The remaining £30m has been made available to community and voluntary groups via a separate funding programme run by Tribal Education on behalf of DCLG.
On 5 March 2012 we announced allocations which could deliver up to 5,600 new affordable homes:
Please note: the allocations contained in this document are indicative only and subject to contract.
Empty Homes allocations by HCA operating areas:
| Funding | Units | |
|---|---|---|
| East and South East | £10,699,500 | 748 |
| Midlands | £15,517,487 | 1,289 |
| North East, Yorkshire and The Humber | £9,867,650 | 945 |
| North West | £11,520,063 | 1,075 |
| South and South West | £6,529,065 | 480 |
| Total | £54,133,765 | 4,537 |
| Funding | Units | |
|---|---|---|
| London (transferred to the GLA) | £15,688,985 | 1,118 |
The 2012-15 Empty Homes bidding guidance and the set of FAQs published during the bid round can be found below:
Framework Delivery Agreements
We have published the standard forms of Empty Homes 2012/15 Framework Delivery Agreement which will form the basis of contractual agreements between the HCA and the Provider(s). There is a separate agreement for single Providers and for consortium Providers. There is also a separate agreement for Providers that are creating a revolving empty homes fund.
If you have any questions relating to the Empty Homes please submit your query to AHPFAQ@hca.gsi.gov.uk.
DCLG funding for Community and Voluntary Groups
Details of the £30m funding programme run by Tribal Education on behalf the DCLG can be found on the Tribal Education website. The application guidance was made available on the DCLG website.
Additional Empty Homes funding
In the September 2012 Housing and Growth package, Government announced that a share of the £300m of additional funding would be made available to help bring 5,000 empty properties back into use. We’ve now published a bidding prospectus for Providers, with full details on how to bid.
In 2010/11 we delivered a Capacity Building Programme (CPB) to more than 260 local authorities. Run in partnership with the national charity, Empty Homes; this year-long programme has delivered bespoke skills, knowledge, support and training.
As part of the legacy of the CBP, the HCA has developed two toolkits to help providers consider the best options to tackle empty homes locally: