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Andrew Stunell presents Grafton Empty Homes Practitioner of the Year Awards
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June 14, 2012
The 2012 Empty Homes Practitioner of the Year Award, sponsored by Grafton (UK) Ltd. was won this year by Keith Shields, Empty Property Officer at South Tyneside Council. Unfortunately Keith was not able to accept the award in person but it was accepted by Alan Armstrong on his behalf.
As in previous years, it was hard to choose between the short-listed submissions. Dominic Gordon of Grafton, who announced the awards, commented:
"we know the fantastic work you do tackling the problem of empty homes up and down the country. That was reflected in the quality of the nominations we got for the award. And that made it really difficult for us on the judging panel, as each of the nominations had its strong points and it was hard to choose between them. Really, any of them would have been a worthy winner.
Dominic went on to describe Keith as "a classic story of a determined individual making a difference". and noted that this
"tends to produce innovation: his latest scheme combines HCA money and pursuing voluntary EDMOs on no fewer than 11 empty homes in a small area which should transform that part of the town."
We'll add Keith's picture when we get it.
There were two "Highly Commended" awards. One went to Daniel Mahon of Equfund (IPS) Ltd. (Pictured left) The award citation stated:
"Equfund Ltd. is an Industrial and Provident Society that secures money from private sources that can be invested in bringing empty homes back into use. The company then works in local communities with groups such as Habitat for Humanity to source, refurbish and let the properties."
The North made a clean sweep of it, with a further Highly Commended award going to the Wirral Empty Homes Team collectively. The award citation noted:
"Last year they successfully tackled 294 empty homes. It all comes down to a very organised and focused approach. For example a good database, access to Council Tax data, a Corporate Empty Property Steering Group with representation from the Emergency Services...and that’s just scratching the surface of what they’ve built.
We were lucky that Andrew Stunell MP stayed in order to present the awards (pictured left presenting the certificate to Paul Jackson of Wirral). Unfortunately we had some technical problems with the other photographs
There were two "Highly Commended" awards. One went to Daniel Mahon of Equfund (IPS) Ltd. (Pictured left) The award citation stated:
"Equfund Ltd. is an Industrial and Provident Society that secures money from private sources that can be invested in bringing empty homes back into use. The company then works in local communities with groups such as Habitat for Humanity to source, refurbish and let the properties."
The North made a clean sweep of it, with a further Highly Commended award going to the Wirral Empty Homes Team collectively. The award citation noted:
"Last year they successfully tackled 294 empty homes. It all comes down to a very organised and focused approach. For example a good database, access to Council Tax data, a Corporate Empty Property Steering Group with representation from the Emergency Services...and that’s just scratching the surface of what they’ve built.
We were lucky that Andrew Stunell MP stayed in order to present the awards (pictured left presenting the certificate to Paul Jackson of Wirral). Unfortunately we had some technical problems with the other photographs