Empty Homes Network

Camilla Sheldon of CLG has now responded to letters from the Empty Homes Network about "revolving funds" and the treatment of HMOs for value-for-money purposes. On the revolving funds, the CLG letter makes clear that the only option would be if the funds could be recycled within the life of the programme. It is difficult to imagine how the upfront cash investment could be recovered in such a short time, other than via some form of shared equity arrangement. This might be of interest to volunary groups involved in helping people with disabilities who sometimes have signficant amounts of cash available. For example, it would be possible to go through the following cycle more than once over the life-time of the programme:

purchasie a home with grant
refurbish and adapt it
sell a substantial equity share to occupant
re-invest the balance arising through sale proceeds in another property

But it would not be realistic to recycle grant attached to leasing and renting schemes. The response on HMOs is positive, the letter noting that: "these woudl be treated in the same way as for HCA reporting. So to city your example a 4 bedroomed HMO would be counted as 4 units of housing. We made clear in the guidance that we will take account of the size of the property and the number of people occupying it when assessing value for money." The letter is attached to this news story.