About Magazine Issue 12

Getting our Empty Homes back into Use

There are 2,400 empty homes in Hastings & St Leonards; 50% of which are flats and 1, 700 of which have been empty for more than six months.

Properties in Southwater Road, St Leonards, have benefitted from grant schemes to bring them back into use.

There are a number of reasons why it would be an advantage to bring empty homes back into use:

To revitalise and regenerate an area
To discourage crime and vandalism
To discourage fly-tipping which attracts mice and rats
To maintain and protect market house prices through removing and replacing empty and decaying properties with refurbished homes
More residents in an area means more money being spent in local shops
To ensure good public transport - if many properties in one particular area are empty, it is likely that less people will use the transport there and the links will then be cut because they are underused. Similarly schools, shops and health facilities may be lost.

We also have around 260 homeless families and individuals in the town and a further 2,000 on the housing register. If empty homes could be brought back into use we would be able to re-home people more quickly and it would also mean a decrease in the demand for new houses to be built on greenfield sites.

The Empty Homes

Strategy The Council launched its Empty Homes Strategy in May 2001, a project which aims to bring 50 new homes back into use this year (2001-02) and a total of 250 homes by 2004.

The Council is investing a total of £750,000 in the project over three years with the possibility of further funding coming from other sources including government, heritage lottery and housing corporation grants. An empty homes forum has been set up, made up of private landlords, managing and letting agents, voluntary organisations, housing associations and the Council to make sure that everyone works together towards positive results.

How will homes be brought back into use?

Owners of properties can now approach the Council for free advice if they are unsure about letting a property. There are also grants available for renovating properties and funds have also been set aside by the Council and the Housing Corporation to help housing associations buy and improve empty properties. They can then be used to permanently house people on the housing register.

Priority areas

The Empty Homes Strategy has set out priority areas. They are:

Southwater Renewal Area
Castle, Gensing and Central St Leonards - these three wards have the highest amount of empty properties in Hastings.
Long-term empties - There are around 300 homes that have been empty for three years or more - it is important to work on these before they deteriorate even further

Award winning scheme

One scheme to bring an empty eyesore property back into use took ten years to complete. Alexandra Park Mansions now provides 125 flats at affordable rents to local residents. It was also considered an excellent example of a scheme to bring an empty property back into use and was awarded the Best Housing Association Scheme in the Empty Homes Agency Awards this year.

Councillor John Humphries Cabinet Member responsible for Housing and Neighbourhood Renewal, said:

Empty properties are wasted homes. By tackling that waste we can dampen the demand to build on green field sites and we can regenerate buildings that may be magnets for crime and anti-social behaviour.

This Strategy will help us provide housing options for single people, key workers and childless couples as well as helping us to reduce the cost of temporary accommodation for homeless families. Every home brought back into use becomes a property on which full Council Tax is payable, which will help meet the cost of public services.

We are committed to improving the standards of housing across the town and have also set up a ‘Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO) Strategy’ which will build upon a number of positive initiatives already underway such as the HMO Task Group and the Secure Accommodation Scheme.

For more information please contact the Empty Homes Officer: Tel: 781341 or FREEPHONE 0800 0858967 email: emptyhomes@hastings.gov.uk

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This page last updated: 12/07/2001