Justice Kenneth Parker has dismissed an appeal against a CPO where the appellant tried to claim that, because the dwelling would have fallen under an exception class for the purposes of an EDMO, it should not therefore by subjec to a CPO. The argument was…
The long awaited changes to the Empty Dwelling Management Order regime are now moving forward as the relevant Statutory Instrument is now before Pariament. The changes are due to come into effect on the 15th November 2012. The wording is identical to the…
We have submitted our consultation response regarding how Empty Homes Premium should be taken account of in the Council Tax Base figures. Although our worst fears about EHP affecting New Homes Bonus seem not to have been justified (according to advice…
We've put our draft consultation response on the exceptions to the Empty Homes Premium on the website here for download. For your convenience, the text will be added into the forum discussion already underway. The most controversial part of the draft is…
The first draft of our consultation response on the Empty Homes Premium has now been published (follow this link for latest version). To contribute, please use our discussion forums.
CLG has for the first time published figures showing the contribution made by reductions in the number of empty homes to New Homes Bonus. The release of the figures was accompanied by a statement from Don Foster, the Minister who has replaced Andrew Stunell.…
St Helens Council in conjunction with Merseyside police are among the first to implement this new Legislation. Just two days after the legislation was introduced, Neighbourhood Police Officers from St Helens, working with the council's Private Sector…
Over the last couple of years the government has been re-configuring its figures on empty homes as part of a wider review of housing statistics in particular. Between January and April 2012 the government consulted on future and recent changes to housing and…
The High Court has ordered a judicial review of the government's handling of the £35million transition fund that was designed to ease some of the issues associated with the abrupt ending of the Housing Market Renewal programme. The issue here is that…
This is very tardy news-reporting given that this collection of essays was published back in Feburary 2012. It appears not to have been picked up on the EHN website at the time. The final essay in the collection (which includes a foreword by then then Housing…
The government is currently consulting on how the council tax collected in the form of Empty Homes Premium should afffect the finances of local authorities. No doubt many Empty Homes Practitioners will have hoped that the council tax collected would be…
Don Foster (pictured right*), Liberal Democract MP for Bath, has replaced Andrew Stunell at the Department for Communities and Local Government. The only information so far available regarding Don Foster's appointment says his "duties are not yet…
As recently as the 12th July we published a news story reporting that the moves to encourage wholesale conversion of redundant commercial premises to housing had "ended with a whimper". The original bold (not to say wild?) proposal had been whittled…
David Ireland of the charity Empty Homes tells us that he has had contact with a senior source at CLG. He has fed back as follows: The Empty homes part of this announcement is essentially a second round of the £100m programme. It will fund getting a further…
