New schemes are taking derelict homes and resurrecting them. Some even create apprenticeships for young people in the process

England has more than 200,000 empty homes. How to revive them?

Ask most people about England’s epidemic of empty homes and they are likely to think of lavish vacant mansions in London owned by absent foreign billionaires.

In fact, the majority of empty properties are in post-industrial areas, where poverty rates are high and house prices languish well below their pre-crash levels. Such a place is Stockton-on-Tees, near Middlesbrough, where Martyn Jones lives.

Two years ago Jones, 23, was homeless and relying on friends to let him sleep on their couches while he struggled to find work. Today, he is painting a wall in a gutted home on a quiet street, part of a group tasked with refurbishing some of the area’s many vacant, derelict homes.

Last week, Theresa May pledged an extra £2bn for housing associations to fund large-scale developments. But with new house building not providing enough affordable homes for more than 1 million people on waiting lists in England, social enterprises and councils are trying to bring empty homes, which number well over 200,000 and are worth almost £50bn, back into occupancy.

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One of them is Community Campus 87, which buys such properties in Stockton-on-Tees, refurbishes them and offers them to previously homeless tenants at rents below the going rate for social housing. In the process, it provides jobs and skills training for people such as Jones.

Having left school at 16, Jones struggled with substance use and anxiety, unable to hold down a job. When his mother kicked him out, he worried he was out of options. “I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for Campus,” he says. “They gave me a home, helped me along the way and now I’ve started going to college.”

Amid a dramatic national collapse in apprenticeships, about 15% of Community Campus’ staff are apprentices, according to its director and founder, Simon Virth. The group, which has refurbished about 250 homes so far, also offers help with job interviews, jobcentre appointments and finding free educational programmes at local colleges.

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At the opposite end of the country, Plymouth city council is offering landlords loans and grants of up to £50,000 per property to bring 375 long-term vacant properties back into use in the next three years. Fifty-nine homes were brought back into occupancy within the first year, but Dan Thorning, a housing officer, acknowledges there have been challenges.

“It can take significant time to build rapport and trust with some owners of empty homes, or to get contractors on board that are willing to work on a project where there are complex issues,” he says. “Sometimes when owners refuse to work with us, we have no choice but to use enforcement powers to bring their properties back into use.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Empty houses in Middlesbrough. Photograph: Mattha Busby/The Guardian

Plymouth is following the lead of Kent county council, whose pioneering no use empty initiative won a prestigious regeneration award earlier in 2018. Its interest-free loans have helped to transform 5,400 empty homes since 2005.

In Stoke-on-Trent, the council has allowed people to buy derelict homes for just £1, on the condition they stay for 10 years and commit to investing in the property. The relative success of such projects has helped fuel calls for community-led housing to play a greater role in alleviating the housing shortage, which has coincided with home ownership falling to a 30-year low.

The Giroscope group in Yorkshire also refurbishes empty homes for subsidised housing, and has had success branching out into a microbrewery, bakery, condiment manufacturer and a vegetarian cafe and shop. Profits are reinvested into the business, but funding remains the key challenge.

Swingeing funding cuts

Money is a constant problem for self-starting groups though. One of the main grants for Community Campus has risen by only 2% over 15 years. “That represents a 23% cut in real terms,” Virth says.

A government scheme, the empty homes programme, was set up in 2012 to provide about £100m to community groups for refurbishments. It was ended by the Conservative government in 2015. Swingeing funding cuts to local authorities have further undermined renewal schemes, while the money is drying up for charities too; more than £3.8bn in government grants has been cut over the past decade.



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Banks can charge twice the rate of interest for loans to social enterprises as to commercial firms, if they agree to lend at all. This can hobble local startups and force them to lease rather than buy properties, meaning they ultimately return to the owner after refurbishment.

Transferring empty properties to organisations which refurbish them and offer them to let at below local housing allowance rates means local authorities benefit from council tax receipts, the area gradually repopulates and the social enterprises can use the assets to raise money to buy more properties.

The alternative is councils paying millions for emergency accommodation because they do not have enough housing stock to deliver their statutory duty to house homeless people, nor the funds to renovate the properties themselves, while whole neighbourhoods elsewhere are cut loose to rot.

The homeless charity Centrepoint say that schemes like these provide some of the vulnerable people in society with a chance to develop the skills they need to get on in life.

“These community led schemes offer a fantastic opportunity for them, and all those who unfortunately face homelessness, by not only providing affordable housing but also the hands-on experience and support to develop the key skills they will need in the world of work,” said Paul Noblet, its head of public affairs. “We hope that the example set by these schemes will inspire both government and employers to take similar action.”

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The housing charity Empty Homes says the absence of dedicated national funding means community-based approaches are more important than ever. These have a proven track record and they offer the best returns in financial, social and housing terms.

“These organisations see beyond profit to save those in housing need,” says Chris Bailey, a campaign manager at Empty Homes. “They do so while delivering lower costs and better social outcomes; reinvesting in more affordable housing and improving the local area.”

This translates into people such as Martyn Jones finding a path to a better life rather than heading further out into the margins. “I wouldn’t know where my life would be heading without Campus,” he says. “This gives me hope for the future.”

This article is part of a series on possible solutions to some of the world’s most stubborn problems. What else should we cover? Email us at theupside@theguardian.com



Additional reporting by Anna Leach