KENT’S NO USE EMPTY SCHEME REACHES 3,000 HOME MILESTONE
UK’s most successful empty homes initiative enjoys record year, returning 600 empty homes to use
No Use Empty (NUE), the empty homes initiative launched by Kent County Council (KCC) in 2005, has now returned a landmark 3,027 long-term empty homes to use.
The milestone has been reached after a record year, in which the scheme successfully returned 583 long-term empty properties to use as much-needed housing.
Over the course of 2013 KCC has approved loans totalling £2.5 million, making it a record year for investment. The scheme has received a total investment of £25 million, a third coming from KCC’s Empty Homes Loan Fund, and two thirds from owners and developers. To date, the scheme has delivered new homes at a cost of just over £8,000 per unit, a fraction of the cost of new-build properties.
The 3,000 home milestone is significant as it means NUE has successfully tackled a third of the homes that stood empty when the initiative was launched in 2005.
NUE was launched in partnership with four local authorities (Shepway, Dover, Thanet and Swale). Today all twelve authorities in Kent participate in the scheme, and in 2011 it was extended beyond the county with Bristol City Council and the West of England partnership launching their own empty homes initiative under the ‘No Use Empty’ banner.
The NUE scheme offers interest free loans (repayable in three years) of up to £175,000 (£25,000 per unit) to those wishing to revive long-term empty properties. NUE has had further success this year, launching a partnership with social housing provider Amicus Horizon to create affordable homes, available for rent at 80% market value, as well as undertaking its largest ever project (by financial value) and first office – residential conversion, which is underway on Sandgate Road in Folkestone.
NUE has inspired a number of other empty homes initiatives across the UK. Earlier this year charity Empty Homes and the UK Government launched the National Empty Homes Fund, which also offers loans to owners of empty properties to help fund refurbishment works.
Mark Dance, Kent County Council’s Cabinet Member for Economic Development, said:
“Empty and unused properties can depreciate the value of adjacent properties by up to 18%, so this is an issue that goes way beyond bricks-and-mortar and impacts the wider social and economic wellbeing of an area. No Use Empty has created 3,000 new homes to date, which not only represents a great return on investment, it has had a pronounced regenerative impact on some of the County’s more deprived areas.”
Steve Grimshaw, Regeneration Project Manager for No Use Empty at Kent County Council, said:
“Returning a third of the homes that lay empty when we launched the scheme in 2005 is a significant marker for us. This has been a bumper year for No Use Empty, as we have launched our affordable homes partnership with Amicus Horizon, as well as issuing our biggest loan to date, which shows the initiative is evolving whilst still achieving its goals. We are always looking for new projects to undertake so urge owners of empty properties to get in touch.”