It's been a long time coming - but it's finally arrived: the government's first national Empty Homes Strategy.
Except it isn't: it's actually a short chapter in a much bigger Housing Strategy (Laying the Foundations: A Housing Strategy for England). But at least the chapter is called Our strategy for empty homes. And let us give credit where credit is due: this government has given far more emphasis to the issue of empty homes than any previous government and has matched rhetoric with action, for example the New Homes Bonus and the £100million in the Affordable Homes Programme.
Yes, we can find plenty to cavil about if we want to pick fault. But today is a day to celebrate not complain. In 2009 we put down a marker when we published our first major policy document From empt y promise to national action plan: Creating a national empty homes initiative. We are now seeing some of those ideas bearing fruit. And we can reasonably hope that this is just the beginning of government initiatves to tackle empty homes. Future governments will, we hope, feel obliged to match and surpass what has been achieved so far. Indeed the Coalition has not rested on its laurels, having recently announced a consultation about a potential Empty Homes Premium and a review of council tax breaks for empty homes owners.
It may take a while for central government to figure out the best way to work with local government and others to facilitate the most effective delivery partnerships: but we are moving in the right directions.
There is little in this strategy that will be new to practitioners and so we are not analysing it in detail. But there is one welcome surprise: an additional £50million for empty homes in some of the worst-hit areas. This will be welcome news indeed in those areas (whatever they are!) and the money appears to be separate from the Affordable Housing Programme, suggesting that it can be used flexbily. We guess this new funding connects with Andrew Stunell's announcement about homesteading at the Liberal Democrat Autumn Conference, but that is pure speculation. Sources who attended the official launch of the strategy say that CLG was adamant that the £50million does not include the £30million previously announced to help soften the impact of the end of the Housing Market Renewal programme.
For us this announcement is bitter-sweet. We have been arguing for extra money to sit alongside the HCA £100million, to be made available in particular to local authorities to support local empty homes initiatives where the primary aim is bringing empties back into use, rather than the creation of affordable housing. We have of couse been assured that possibility of extra money being available is a non-starter. Yet here it is - extra money (and never mind the £900millio of other new funding also announced....).
We arev very happy to see this extra £50million. But we do wish that the government would be bold enough to grasp the nettle and provide a stream of capital funding - at a low level - to support sustainable local authority empty homes initaitives more generally. £50million made available for that would have been such a boost to the wider world of empty homes across the country. We live in hope....
The other big news of the day is that we now also have the HCA's Bidding Guidance on Bringing Empty Homes back into use which we discuss in a separate story. We hope you'll check it out.