£70m of Empty Homes Cash Allocated

The government has allocated £70 million of funding to 95 projects to bring more than 5,600 empty homes back into use. More than half the projects are in the north and midlands, which were hit by the scrapping of the housing market renewal pathfinder programme. The government will allocate a further £30 million, made available exclusively for community-led groups, at a later date. There are 720,000 empty homes in England, with 280,000 left vacant for six months or more. Download a copy of the allocations from the HCA website.

Don’t Knock Them Down – Give Them Away

Independent charity Empty Homes is urging councils to give away empty houses instead of knocking them down. £70m of public money has been earmarked for demolishing over 5,000 homes, with little prospect of them being replaced. Thirteen councils have been awarded £35.5m in match funded government grants (through the Housing Market Renewal Transition Fund) to wind up their Housing Market renewal programmes. Empty Homes has discovered through the Freedom of Information Act,that councils intend to use virtually all of this money to knock down empty homes and buy up more houses in order to demolish them. In total the councils intend to demolish 5,125 homes. In the majority of cases the proposals make clear that there are no imminent plans to replace the houses, and the cleared sites are set to be grassed over or used as informal car parks. Read more on the Empty Homes website.

Shapps Pledges £71 Million to End Legacy of 'Ghost Streets'

Housing Minister Grant Shapps has announced the allocation of more than £71 million to help families trapped in half-empty and abandoned streets, which he claims is a direct consequence of a controversial regeneration scheme introduced in 2002. The new fund will help tackle the 'ghost streets' across the Midlands and the north of England left behind by the Housing Market Renewal Pathfinder programme. Mr Shapps announced that 13 projects in the worst hit areas will receive a cash injection to help their local communities. These areas originally bid for a share of a £30 million fund that they would then match - but the minister said that an extra £5.5 million had been added to ensure that every street or block with more than half its properties lying vacant would feel the benefit. The money is being provided on the basis of pound-for-pound matching locally. Read more on 24dash.

Council Reveals £130m Housing Plan

Liverpool City Council is planning to build 2,000 new homes over the next three years and bring empty homes back into use as part of a £130 million investment in housing. A £20m fund to support first-time buyers will also form part of the housing delivery plan. The plan involves making council-owned brownfield sites available to registered providers for housing at no cost. The council said the plan would be financed through borrowing and by using capital receipts and that it had also bid for £10m of funds through the housing market renewal transition fund and could potentially receive revenue from the new homes bonus. Read more on the Liverpool City Council website.

Large Drop in Empty Homes Put Down To Demolition Write-Offs

A dramatic fall in the number of empty homes may have been caused by councils writing off properties previously earmarked for demolition under the housing market renewal programme. The charity Empty Homes says a 4 per cent drop in the number of vacant dwellings in England between 2009 and 2010 is too good to be true and that some of the biggest reductions occurred in areas with large numbers of homes due for demolition under the HMR programme. In reality, many of these properties may remain standing for years because the coalition government ended the programme early, suggests the charity. Figures based on the council tax register in each authority show there were 738,414 homes standing empty last year - down 32,247 on the previous year. This follows a fall of 12,458 between 2008 and 2009. Read more on Inside Housing.

CLG Saving £12 million for Pathfinders

The government has confirmed that it is safeguarding more than £12 million of growth funding for pathfinders. In a letter sent to pathfinder leaders, officials at the CLG said there would be no cuts to their growth funding. The department has also given more details on how it will implement a £50 million cut to housing market renewal funding, which was announced last month. As part of a consultation on the cuts, the CLG has suggested each pathfinder will lose 16 per cent from its HMR budget. Alistair Graham, director of the Oldham Rochdale pathfinder, said: ‘It is a relief to know that no more funding will be cut, but we desperately need to know what our allocation is. ‘We are trying to avoid entering into any new commitments ever since they first told us about the £50 million cut.’ Read more on Inside Housing.

Local Authority Housing Construction – Parliamentary Written Answer (2)

John Healey MP: What estimate has been made of the change to the number of homes to be built under (a) the National Affordable Housing Programme, (b) the Kickstart scheme and (c) the Housing Market Renewal Programme as a result of the budgetary reductions announced on 24 May 2010?
Grant Shapps MP:The Government are committed to reducing the UK’s budget deficit. It has led us to identify savings across Government including the £150 million reduction against the previous Administration's housing pledge. Against this, £170 million has been provided for 2010-11 to safeguard delivery of around 4,000, otherwise unfunded, social rented homes. It is estimated that the £150 million reduction will reduce the number of affordable housing starts by around 5,000 but these changes will mainly fall to shared ownership and shared equity schemes - not social rented housing. The Department is consulting on the mechanism by which the Housing Market Renewal reduction of £50 million will take place. In addition we will un-ring fence HMR expenditure in order to provide maximum flexibility at a local level. At this stage the final decision on individual allocations has still to be taken. It will be for individual HMR Pathfinders to manage the reductions and to review the varying impact.
John Healey MP: What guidance has been provided to councils on assessing levels of housing need in their area?
Robert Neill MP: Planning Policy Statement 3: Housing and the Strategic Housing Market Assessment Practice Guidance can assist local authorities on how to assess the level of housing need in their area.

Cuts Threaten £236m Regeneration Budget

The government has removed the ring fence from the housing market renewal budget as part of its drive for savings from local authority spending. Last week, communities secretary Eric Pickles announced councils would be expected to make £1.166 billion in savings, and that he would give them greater flexibility to do so by removing ring fences from a number of revenue and capital programmes. The £236 million housing market renewal pathfinder budget is one of the programmes to lose its ring fence, which means projects could be at risk. Read more of this story on the Inside Housing website.

Impact of Her Majesty’s Treasury Announcement on HCA Spending

Following the announcement by Her Majesty’s Treasury on spending cuts, the Homes and Communities Agency will be implementing a package of programme savings totalling £230 million. This is part of a wider package of programme savings being made by its sponsor department – Communities and Local Government – of £780 million pounds for the current financial year 2010/11. The HCA savings are made up of reductions to the following programme budgets:
National Affordable Housing Programme £100 million pounds
Kickstart Round 2 £50 million. There are currently bids totalling £214 million that have gone through the due diligence process. The sum available to fund Kickstart projects will be reduced by £50m. Total 2010/11 Kickstart (Round 1 and Round 2) budget = £420 million pounds.
Gypsy and Traveller programme - £30 million pounds
Housing Market Renewal - £50 million pounds
In addition to the programme savings outlined above, further commitments on the remaining uncommitted funds for the National Affordable Housing Programme, Kickstart Round 2 and Local Authority New Build (LANB) programmes will remain on hold, until Government funding decisions are detailed in the Chancellor’s 50 day budget on 22 June 2010. All affected stakeholders will be receiving correspondence from the HCA explaining the current situation and the implications. Read the full briefing including details of what projects are continuing in Kickstart and which LANB projects are on hold until the Budget on 22 June by clicking on the HCA logo below.