The London Rebuilding Society has launched a new scheme to help bring empty homes in London back into use, drawing on their experience with Home Improvement projects. Few details of the scheme are available on their website but contact details are provided…
This is an unusual news story. The "news" is your contributions about refused EDMO applications. We want a place where people that have been involved with EDMOs that have been refused by an RPT can register this so that others can learn from the…
George Clarke has now delivered what he calls a "manifesto for change" to the government in his role as Empty Homes Adviser. Claiming this as "a momentous day", George's website records that "For months now George has been…
The government has listened to the representations made by the Empty Homes Network and other organisations and decided that homes that are "genuinely for sale or rent" should not be included in the exceptions from the Empty Homes Premium. The Empty…
Don Foster made quite a big point about commercial to residential conversions in his speech to the Empty Homes Conference last Monday (26th November). He indicated that priority access to new funding would be given to the Portas Pilot areas. In addition,…
CLG has confirmed that the bidding guidelines for a share of the £300million boost to affordable housing and empty homes will be published shortly and that the bidding will not close until late March. An email from Sally Turner sent to EHN today states:…
Here is the text of Don Foster's speech to the Empty Homes Conference on Monday 26th in London (as drafted, not delivered).In 1990, Rachel Whiteread won international recognition for her cast of an empty room. It was a striking piece. Conveying the…
The government has published its response to the consultation on what should happen to empty homes premium receipts. They have confirmed that they will stick with their original proposals to distrubute the money to precepting authorities such as Fire and…
On the day that the government's statutory instrument to make it harder for local authorities to obtain Empty Dwelling Management Orders came into force, it was reported that South Tyneside Council had secured 11 EDMOs at a single hearing of the…
The familiar Communiites and Local Government website has now been replaced by the developing single portal for government, GOV.UK. DCLG and the Department for Transport are the first two departments to make the switch, on 15th November 2012. In the process,…
BBC breakfast time on the 14th November featured a Fresh Horizons scheme in Huddersfield, funded out of the government's £100million empty homes pot. The scheme aims to bring 65 homes back into use. The video is accessible from here. You can find out…
The Empty Homes Network has recently sent out a Freedome of Information Request to English housing authorities. This is the first time that the Network has done anything of this kind. The FOI requests will no doubt percolate their way down to many of our…
In an exclusive front page story, Inside Housing magazine reports that the government has admitted that the allocation of HMR Transition funding for the purposes of widespread demolitions was unlwaful and has therefore decided not to contest the judicial…
A letter written to local authorities at the end of July apparently indicates the government's intention to offer councils complete flexiblity over the level of discounts for empty homes and periods of time for which they could apply. The letter states:…
