Autumn Statement reveals indicative allocations for empty homes

Although it has been said by Don Foster that there is no predetermined split of the £300million additional funding for empty homes and affordable housing announced in the Autumn Statement, this has not prevented the Treasury from publishing indicative allocations on their website. The Autumn Statement refers to bringing 5,000 empty homes back into use and gives indicative figures for additional captial expenditure of £30million in 2013-14 and £60million in 2014-15. The regions are dead - long live the regions! Perhaps curiously, given the government's hostility to the whole concept of regions (which were abolished via the Localism Act) the Treasury has also chosen to report the spending measures in the Autumn Statement on a regional basis here. The indicative figures for empty homes are broken down by regions as shown below, going clockwise from the North-East. However, the figures are not self-explanatory, as can be seen in the text and figures for the North-East and Yorkshire and Humber and South East and East.

• North-East: £17M to return over 1500 empty homes to use in the North East and Yorkshire
• Yorkshire and Humber: £18 million to return over 1500 empty homes to use in Yorkshire and the North East.
• East Midlands: £16.1 million to return over 1300 empty homes to use
• East of England: £12.3 million to return over 900 empty homes to use in the East and South East.
• South East £15 million to return about 960 empty homes to use in the South East and East.
• London £31.7 million to return over 2,200 empty homes to use
• South West £6.5 million to return over 500 empty homes to use.
• West Midlands £17 million to return over 1300 empty homes to use across the Midlands.
• North West £49 million to return over 3,000 empty homes to use.

The total amount of funding here is nearly £183million and the total number of dwellings is 13160 on the assumption there is no double-counting. The grant-per-unit rate varies from £11,333 in the North East to £16333 in the North West, suggesting that the North West figure of £49million might be an error. Based on the £90million quoted in the main statement, it is probable that this is not all additional funding. It probably includes some money already allocated to empty homes ie the £100million (but not the Clusters of Empties programme?). That would indicate additional expenditure of £83million. The difference between this and the national £90million might conceivably be money already drawn down in the £100million programme. Or various other explanations could be put forward....