Empty Homes Awards 2015 - your submissions

Empty Homes Awards 2015 open for entries Every year we present awards to recognise excellence in empty homes work at our Annual Conference at a ceremony sponsored by Grafton UK Ltd. We'd love to get your submissions for these awards - by midnight, Wednesday, 29th April please. Submissions should be clear and to the point and no more than two sides of A4 or the equivalent in an email, per award. The four awards are as follows. Empty Homes Practitioner of the Year Award 2015 Sponsored for a fifth year by Grafton UK Ltd. Please tell us why the nominated person deserves the award. We are interested in any of the following:

• innovation
• dedication
• organisation
• .... and/or any other quality or achievement that you think deserves recognition.

Don't be embarrassed to nominate yourself. Empty Homes Practitioners often work on their own and don't have colleagues that know how good they are! Most Innovative Intervention Award 2015 Sponsored by Empty Property Solutions Ltd. Empty property practitioners excel at providing a range of solutions to the problem of wasted homes. This new award is intended to recognise creative and original interventions that resulted in a problem long term empty property being returned to use. Let us know how you made it happen. And we'll hope to feature your intervention in a new Case Studies section on the website. Best LA/Community Housing Organisation Partnership Award 2015 Jointly sponsored by Habitat for Humanity Homes and Empty Homes Network Recent research by David Mullins and Halima Sacranie* highlights the importance of partnership for organisations funded through CLG’s Community Grants Programme. The contribution made by partnerships between community based housing organisations and local authorities is particularly evident in the research report. We welcome submissions from either or both that demonstrate one or more of the following

• how a local authorities and community housing organisations have helped one another achieve their objectives
• excellence in the partnership framework employed by the partners

If the submission is from one particular organisation, we’ll look to get evidence that the submission is supported by the other partner(s). Gareth Hepworth, CEO of Habitat for Humanity, and Nick Pritchard-Gordon, Chair of Empty Homes Network, have said: “We are very pleased to be able to support this award, highlighting the excellent work being done jointly by councils and community-based housing organisations.“ LA/Housing Association Partnership of the Year Award 2014 Sponsored by London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Partnerships between local authorities and housing associations can also play a vital part in bringing empty homes back into use. Since the 1990s, such partnerships have often declined or disappeared, but the HCA’s empty homes funding programme has helped rebuild a culture of joint working. London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, as a local authority with a strong commitment to bringing empty homes work back into use, is keen to see best practice documented and recognised. We welcome submissions that

• highlight the results achieved by local authorities and housing associations working together either strategically or or a specific programme
• document the partnership mechanisms that have produced those results.

Judging Panel The Empty Homes Awards will be judged by a panel chaired by Nick Pritchard-Gordon (Chair of the Empty Homes Network and Empty Homes Officer at Reading Borough Council), Andrew Lavender of Housing Training and Law Consultancy Ltd, Jon Fitzmaurice, OBE, Director of self-help-housing.org, and a representative of the sponsoring organisation for each award. In the event of a tie, Nick Pritchard-Gordon will have a casting vote. Please note: the Practitioner of the Year award is only available to Full Members of the Empty Homes Network (Corporate, Collective or Individual). Sorry but we can’t offer free or discounted Conference attendance fees to the winners. However, there will be a photo opportunity during the Conference and we publish and make available pictures of winners receiving their awards. Please send your nominations to events@ehnetwork.org.uk *(Evaluation of the Empty Homes Community Grants Programme (EHCGP) - Midlands region, Baseline Case Studies Report: Housing and Communities Research Group, University of Birmingham, April 2014) The Empty Homes Conference 2015 is sponsored by Ad Hoc Property Management Ltd. Gold Conference Supporters