£3m Empty Homes Loan Scheme Scrapped

The National Empty Homes Loan Fund, a government-funded scheme to bring empty homes back into use, has been scrapped because of low take-up by home owners. The scheme offered owners of empty homes a loan of up to £15,000 to renovate their property to the Decent Homes standard and rent them out. The scheme was operated by charity Empty Homes with Ecology Building Society and administered through local authorities. It was granted £3m from the CLG last year on the basis that 324 empty properties would be brought back into use within agreed timescales. However, several councils have reported minimal or zero take-up and the scheme was scrapped last month. Read more on Inside Housing.