Put Cash into Empty Homes, Say BPF

The government should divert grants for new build into bringing thousands of empty homes back into use as social housing, an umbrella-group has demanded. The British Property Federation said renovating some of the 762,000 empty properties in England could answer the social housing crisis and cost 10 per cent of building new houses. This would also tackle some of the problems which follow empty properties such as squatters, fly tipping, vandalism and arson. The BPF is calling for the government to reallocate money from the HCA’s temporary social housing grants, currently only available for new builds, and for the proposed council tax incentive scheme to cover empty homes as well as new builds. Read more on Inside Housing.