Reduce text sizeIncrease text sizeDefault coloursImproved contrastHigh contrastTackling empty homes is one of the Coalition Government’s policy priorities. As part of the Comprehensive Spending Review in October 2010, the Government announced a £100m fund to bring more empty homes back into use.
Empty 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.
The range of reforms to the way social housing is delivered, set out in the Localism Bill, will offer providers greater flexibility to respond to local needs. 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.
Successful bidders with schemes that can be delivered before April 2012 were announced on 21 November 2011. Subject to contract, this will bring just over 200 empty properties back into use as affordable homes in this financial year.
This is a forerunner to the main Empty Homes Programme 2012-15, see below for the bidding guidance.
We have published the standard form of Empty Homes 2011/12 Framework Delivery Agreement which will form the basis of contractual agreements between the HCA and the Provider(s).
We will publish the Empty Homes 2012/15 Framework Delivery Agreement in due course.
If you have any questions please submit these to AHPFAQ@hca.gsi.gov.uk.
The Government published its Housing Strategy on 21 November 2011, of which an important part is its strategy for tackling empty properties.
The strategy included details of £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.
The majority of that funding is available over the period 2012-15 and is intended to deliver at least 3,300 Affordable Homes by March 2015.
The Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister announced the opening of the bid round for Empty Homes 2012-15 on 21 November 2011. The bid round was aimed at Registered Providers of Social Housing, local authorities, charities and community groups with the grant funding being made available from the HCA. The bid round closed on 23 January 2012 and allocations have now been announced (5 March 2012).
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 |
| London | £15,688,985 | 1,118 |
| 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 | £69,822,750 | 5,655 |
Bids were assessed in line with the bidding guidance - PDF (115KB) that was published on 21 Nov 2012 and in conjunction with the Affordable Homes Programme Framework.
The guidance sets out how the funding available was allocated through the HCA (or, from 1 April 2012, for London, the Greater London Authority) and includes a timetable for announcing allocations.
If you have any questions relating to the Empty Homes please submit your query to AHPFAQ@hca.gsi.gov.uk. During the bid round we published questions of general interest that had been raised in the set of FAQs below.
A separate bid round for community led developers, such as charities, smaller not-for profit organisations and community and voluntary groups, to bid for a share of £100m Empty Homes 2012-15 programme, was announced by the Communities Minister, Andrew Stunell, on 24 January 2012. This part of the programme is not being administered by the HCA, but is being managed by Tribal Education, who have been appointed by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) to deliver this part of the programme.
The application guidance is available on the DCLG website.
As part of the local investment planning process, we continue to work with local authorities and partners to support the development and implementation of comprehensive strategies to maximise the use of empty homes.
Over the last 10 months we have 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. The HCA is monitoring the impact of the CPB across local authorities and a report on the results will be published shortly.
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:
Our funding to bring empty homes back into use is aimed at registered partners, but we also welcome bids from community organisations who wish to partner with other bodies or become Registered Providers to access the grant.
Throughout 2011/12 we will deliver Empty Homes Capacity Building Programmes for community groups. We will work in partnership with the Self-help Housing Organisation to deliver training to help community groups tackle empty homes at a local level.
The overall aims of the Programme are to: