The Empty Homes Network has written to Camilla Sheldon of DCLG about the Government's forthcoming national strategy on empty homes. We've picked up some of the key points made at the Round Table meeting organised by DCLG in London on June 28th and made some positive suggestions for aspects the Strategy could usefully cover.
The draft letter was circulated around the Executive for comment and also builds on previous EHN policy documents. We have not gone into the fine level of detail found in our 2009 policy document but we'll be happy to elaborate if asked to . We have maintained a rather critical position on the £100million because it seems that a unique opportunity to develop a coherent empty homes programme has not been fully exploited. And we are calling for the Government to really get over to local authorities the importance of using the New Homes Bonus to invest in empty homes work. You can read the letter here. We've also circulated it to other key agencies.