Bringing empty homes back into use
Empty properties tend to have a negative effect on the surrounding area, suffer from disrepair, vandalism and pests, and often attract antisocial behaviour and fly-tipping.
Crucially, they also represent a terrible waste when so many people are struggling to find somewhere to live.
One mechanism we can use to bring long-term empty property back into residential use is the Empty Home Grant. This is designed to help owners undertake repairs, improvements or conversion works, covering up to 50% of the eligible works up to a maximum of £20,000 per unit.
This process has recently brought a three-bedroom home back into use and available to us as temporary accommodation after being empty for ten years.
Before and after: the property was in a very poor state of repair
The Empty Homes team became aware of this property when a neighbour made a complaint about its state to the Council. We tracked down the legal owner and worked with them to find a solution. An Empty Home Grant helped refurbish the property, on the condition that the Council was granted a lease for a minimum of five years. We are using it as temporary accommodation to house a homeless family which would otherwise be staying in nightly-paid accommodation.
We have given out 12 empty home grants in the past year and a further five empty homes have been brought back into residential use through negotiations and monitoring. The team is also in the process of taking enforcement action on empty home owners who refuse to engage with us.
If you are aware of an empty property in the borough, pass on the details to emptyhomes@lewisham.gov.uk.