The Scottish government has launched a new £4million fund to help address empty homes and commercial properties in town centres. The funding can be used to bring long-term empty homes back into use or to convert redundant commercial properties into housing. As with the predecessor scheme, the Scottish Empty Homes Loan Fund, the homes produced must be affordable.
There is little detail available about the Town Centre Empty Homes Fund at the moment. The press release states simply that it
will offer funding to regenerate both homes which have been lying empty for long periods of time, and to convert empty commercial spaces into residential accommodation. The properties will then be available for affordable rent or sale.
However one resevervation expressed by EHN with respect to the predecessor scheme does seem to have been addressed in that the fund consists of a 50-50 mixture of loans and grant, whereas the previous scheme was 100% loan with 60% to be repaid by 2019-20.
EHN has previously pointed out that expecting empty homes practitioners to produce affordable housing purely on the basis of loans, given that affordable housing normally involves grant, is incoherent from the policy point of view and significantly reduces the number of deliverable schemes. No doubt skilled practitioners will be able to negotiate schemes in some cases but having to pay the capital back leaves us operating with one hand tied behind our backs compared with registered providers who have received billions in grant to achieve comparable results.
Precise definitions of "Town Centre", "long periods of time", "empty commercial space", "affordable rent or sale" remain to be clarified as do the details of who would be eligible to bid for money. Meantime, the Scottish Government announcement can be found here and further details will be reported when they become available.