We’re very pleased to announce that, as of 1st March 2013, all 22 of the Welsh local authorities have joined the Empty Homes Network under a Collective Membership that will last through to March 2015. All employees of the Welsh councils will now be able to…
An innovative new project to explore new routes to community engagement around empty homes has taken a major step forward with the appointment of Aisling McCourt as Engagement and Partnership Manager for the project at Tameside MBC. **Greater Manchester Empty…
An Information Tribunal seems to have brought to a close the long-drawn out controversy around Freedom of Infomation requests for lists of empty homes. The Tribunal's conclusion, in its re-hearing of the appeal of Voyjas against the original decision by…
The "Forgotten Spaces 2013" competition is being launched this week, inviting submissions for spaces in London and Preston. Planning magaizne reports that The Forgotten Spaces competition, run by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)…
Bookings for the 2013 Empty Homes Conference to be held in Birmingham on May 21st are now being taken and the Conference Programme has been published, with all speakers confirmed except for Don Foster MP, who we are very much hoping will attend. The…
Eric Pickles has finally announced the on-off-on relaxation of conversion of commercial to residential use. The change is however restricted to changes from use class B1(a) (office use) to C3 - single household dwelling house. Theere will be a prior approval…
A story in the Financial Times published on Monday says that a move to make it easier to convert offices to residential use by relaxing planning controls is about to be implemented. The article says The Financial Times has learnt that planning minister Nick…
We're starting to prepare for the 2013 National Conference. As always our members' views on what they'd like the Conference to cover will be welcome. A survey spreadsheet is attached to this item and if you'd like to help shape the…
A parliamentary answer by Mark Prisk, Housing Minisiter, confirms that most of the zero figures for empty homes returned to use in the provisional New Homes Bonus allocations are for authorities where the empties figures are being queried. The parliamentary…
The government is consulting on extending the Primary Authority scheme to the Housing Health and Safety Rating System. Under the Primary Authority scheme an organisation or individual that works across a number of authorities can select a Primary Authority as…
Although it has been said by Don Foster that there is no predetermined split of the £300million additional funding for empty homes and affordable housing announced in the Autumn Statement, this has not prevented the Treasury from publishing indicative…
The National Audit Office has a current project to look into the New Homes Bonus. Their website states: This study examines the design of the scheme, and assesses early indicators of its impact. EHN has contacted the NAO and pointed out that its members have…
An article on the Planning magazine website reports the introduction of a new clause into the Growth and Infrastructure Bill which allows for a "Prior Approval" process to be adopted by local authorities in some (unspecified) cases. This is…
Graham Jones, Labour MP for Haslingden and Hyndburn and David Ireland of the Empty Homes Agency have engaged in an interesting debate about demolitions in Jones's blog. Jones makes a robust defence of the need for demolitions in his constituency while…
