Communities Minister Andrew Stunell has launched two new online toolkits to help local councils and communities better identify the empty homes in their area and bring them back into use. The launch is part of a week of intensive action by the Minister, to step up work across the country to tackle the 'scandal' of the country's 300,000 empty homes, which if occupied by average sized families would give around 700,000 more people a home of their own. The Geographical Information System (GIS) Empty Homes Mapping Toolkit, which plots the location of long term empty homes in private ownership across the country, has been developed to allow councils to pinpoint empty homes 'hot spots' in their area, and work with the landlords and local community to bring the derelict properties back into use. The Empty Homes Knowledge Toolkit will be a new 'one-stop shop', giving local authorities, housing associations, empty property owners, landlords and the wider community access to everything they need to know about bringing properties back into use, including the legislative frameworks, partnership building and investment mechanisms. Find out more on the HCA website.
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