Back from the brink

The issue of empty homes is nationwide, and one that has come under increased attention with the seeming lack of affordable housing available.

Here on Merseyside, the number of disused houses is the highest in the North West and one of the highest in the country, with over 8,000 vacant homes in Liverpool alone.

As a new enterprise prepares to launch in the city which aims to bring as many of these homes back into use, Your Move looks at how the project will work and how local authorities across the Liverpool City Region (LCR) are dealing with the problem.

Words by Lawrence Saunders

There are a number of reasons why a property becomes empty. It can be through the death or ill health of an owner; the property being subject to probate or other minor legal quarrels or a landlord being unwilling or unable to let the property. An owner may also have inherited a property without knowing what to do with it.

Whatever the reason, according to Liverpool City Council’s Empty Homes team, as of 1 April 2016 there were 8,241 vacant properties in Liverpool, of which 4,207 were long-term voids (properties which have been empty for six months or longer).

An increasing focus of local councils across the city region has been on bringing as many empty homes as possible back into use through a range of strategies and schemes.

To support this, the LCR was allocated £16.8 million in 2012 to restore over 700 empty homes across the city region from the government’s ‘Clusters of Empty Homes Fund’, with £3.04m used on South Liverpool projects such as the redevelopment of 37 terraced houses in Toxteth’s Welsh Streets.

Another £2.5m was proportioned to schemes in Sefton, Wirral and Knowsley – all three of which have developed their own strategies for dealing with empty homes.

Wirral Council operates HOUSE (Home Ownership Using Sustainable Empty Properties), a scheme which refurbishes properties to a high standard before selling them on at discount to first-time buyers and owner occupiers.

In Sefton, a free matchmaker scheme is in operation which pairs up empty home owners who want to sell with potential buyers, cutting out some associated fees. Liverpool City Council’s Empty Homes team has confirmed it will introduce a similar scheme later this year.

“Bringing empty homes back into use is a key priority for us,” says Councillor Mike Murphy, Knowsley Council’s cabinet member for regeneration and economic development.

“It adds to our housing stock, provides good quality homes and improves our neighbourhoods.

“We have successfully used Empty Dwelling Management Orders on a number of occasions to take over the management of empty properties in the borough and, where necessary, carry out refurbishment works to bring them back into use.

“Since 2011, we have successfully returned more than 350 empty properties to use. Over that period, we have achieved a 72% reduction in properties that had been empty for a minimum of five years and a 47% reduction in properties that had been empty for over two years.”

“bringing empty homes back into use is a key priority. It adds to our housing stock, provides good quality homes and improves our neighbourhoods.”

In Liverpool, a new enterprise initiative which aims to bring thousands of empty homes back into use is currently being developed by local community volunteer Ronnie Hughes, who was heavily involved with the successful Granby Four Streets scheme in Toxteth which saw the redevelopment of 150 formerly empty Victorian homes.

“There are quite a lot of ordinary people who bought another house because it looked like a good investment and they’re now stuck with the thing,” says Ronnie, a former director at Liverpool Housing Trust.

“These are not your caricature second home owners – they are people who put some money into the house next door because it looked good value at £60,000 and now they’re stuck with it.

“It’s quite easy to find great big lumps of empty houses like Granby, Anfield and the Welsh Streets because they are all together in their hundreds.

“Others appear in ones and twos and they begin blighting the streets they are on. So my idea, and I know people who have done similar things in other cities, is to find these empty homes, contact the owners and see if we can help.”

Alongside his partners Jayne Lawless and Jen Graham, Ronnie will undertake any required clear out, clean up and decoration of the property in order to prepare them for rent or sale before assisting with the landlord on any legal issues they may have as well as offering specialist housing advice.

Known as Coming Home, the group is currently working on a business model for the enterprise and will be pitching to the Beautiful Ideas Co. CIC in North Liverpool next month, aiming to secure £30,000 in funding to begin work on several properties in the area.

Ronnie is keen to stress that the aim of Coming Home is not to create social housing, but a whole range of reasonably priced properties to give ordinary people the chance to own their own home.

“I want to be able to help out people like my daughter – 30 years old, she and her husband are in employment, she has three children and they will never be able to afford a house of their own.

“I want to come into this market at reasonable prices but do a good spread of houses. As much as I might do streets like the ones in Granby – small terraced houses – I’m perfectly up for doing a semi-detached in Childwall as well.”

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