HACT - Golden Projects Competition

To celebrate HACT’s Golden Jubilee, they are running a competition called Golden Projects - a chance to turn a golden idea into reality. They want to support project ideas from tenant, managers or frontline workers that will improve the wellbeing and living conditions of vulnerable people. The projects must be backed by a social housing provider.

10 entries will get the opportunity to become HACT’s pilot projects – with pump priming of £5K per project, expert support and widespread promotion. A larger award of initially £30K will be available for 2 to 3 of the pilot projects to really take off in 2011.

To participate, read the full information pack on http://hact.org.uk/golden-jubilee/golden-projects and send in your project proposal by 4 October 2010.

Hackney Council tackles empty homes

London Housing News reports that Hackney Council has been taking action to bring empty properties back into use:

“The council has helped create 221 new homes from empty properties in the borough in the past two years, for renting by those on the council’s housing waiting list, and has also recruited a dedicated officer to work on the issue.

Grant funding worth several thousands of pounds is available through the council for landlords wanting to return empty properties into use for renting, and owners, neighbours, developers and estate agents should make contact to find out more about available options.”

Full story here.

TSRC briefing paper on self help housing

The Third Sector Research Centre at Birmingham University, which is funded by the Cabinet Office, is researching various aspects of housing as part of its work.  Following discussions with Self-Help-Housing.Org, one of these areas of research is into the role of self-help housing  as a  driver of innovative community driven housing  initiatives and a Briefing Paper outlines the approach they’re taking.

“It’s good  to see the hard work of self-help housing organisations being recognised in a major piece of research such as this” said Jon Fitzmaurice Director of Self-Help-Housing.Org  “Later this year, TSRC plan to hold a symposium aimed at key policy makers as part of the research, which together with their findings, will be used to make the case for additional resources being made available  to support community driven housing initiatives. “

Self help housing part of the solution - New Start blog

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Self Help Housing.org’s Director, Jon Fitzmaurice, responds to news of government funding to deal with problems caused by empty properties with a blog post on how self help housing can help tackle anti-social behaviour.

Government cash to get empty homes back into use

Housing Minister John Healey has announced funding to help councils tackle empty property and anti-social behaviour. £1million will be made available to 17 councils where anti-social behaviour focused around empty properties has been identified by local residents as a problem. The funding will be used to train council staff in getting empty homes back into use.

Jon Fitzmaurice, Director of Self-Help-Housing.org said: “This is a welcome move on the part of Government, but is limited to only seventeen local authorities and fails to build on, or support, the work of existing community based self help housing initiatives. We will be approaching John Healey to raise these issues “

MOD criticised over empty properties

Almost 8,000 homes for Armed Forces families are standing empty despite the Ministry of Defence spending £17m a year renting substitute properties reports Housing News.

Grassroots Grants

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Third Sector reports that the Government’s Grassroots Grants scheme has paid out £34million in its first year. Nearly 13,500 grants worth an average of £2,500 were distributed to community groups between September 2008 and September 2009. For details of how to apply for a grant, click here.

Number of long-term empty private homes above 300,000

Regen.net reports that the number of private homes standing empty for more than six months has risen above 300,000 for the first time in five years.

Early Day Motion on Empty Homes

Conservative Shadow Housing Minister Grant Shapps tabled an early day motion noting that of the 784,000 homes which are currently vacant, 327,000 have been empty for a period of more than six months; despite the presence of 1.8 million families on the social housing waiting list.

The motion calls for an end to Empty Dwelling Management Orders (EDMOs) and the adoption of a less bureaucratic approach to the use of empty dwellings.

The motion can be read here: http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=39460&SESSION=899

Lib Dem plan for action on empty properties

Liberal Democrat housing spokeswoman, Sarah Teather, has used a speech at her party’s annual conference to call for empty social homes to be brought back into use. She said: “My fear is that the recession will leave us with whole estates of empty properties…we could use these estates for short-life housing to help a young person on low wages get a temporary helping hand.”

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