Orbis Protect joins forces with E.ON to bring private homes back into use

Leading property protection provider Orbis Protect has joined forces with E.ON, one of the UK's top energy suppliers, to support its drive to tackle the UK’s housing shortage by bringing empty homes back into use. Orbis Protect is partnering with E.ON on the scheme and will provide specialist clearance and cleaning of any empty properties, externally and internally. With 605,000 empty homes in England – more than 200,000 of which have been declared long-term empty properties – the scheme is offering help to owners with properties that haven’t been lived in from anywhere between six months to 10-15 years. Guy Other, CEO of Orbis Protect said:  “There are a number of reasons why private property owners leave homes empty and there are varying conditions and states of repair that we can help with. Sometimes people feel there is too much to do, they don’t have the time or the skills to bring the property up to standard. With our level of expertise, we can tackle anything from major clearance and cleaning, to vital safety checks. “Although we have been doing this for many years working, within the social housing and commercial sectors, it’s a skill we are easily able to transfer to private properties and we are really pleased to be working with E.ON and the council on this pilot scheme.” Following stringent checks, the dedicated Orbis team will also make sure the properties are safe and accessible for other service providers in order bring the houses back to a decent standard.  Orbis Protect has a skilled and experienced team already working with a number of social housing providers and deals with 100,000 empty properties each year. This service has not been undertaken effectively for privately-owned properties before now. E.ON offers a free survey to private owners of empty properties to establish what is needed to bring the property back up to standard and once complete, can fully manage the refurbishment work to ensure the property is once again habitable.  Andrew Angus, Housing Solutions Manager at E.ON, said:  “Through our work, we’ve seen first-hand the impact empty homes can have on the communities around them and this service can help support them and bring much-needed homes back to use. We hope to be able to offer this solution to other local authorities across the country over the coming months.”