Tribal, who are managing the programme,  report that there were 150 bids for the £30m programme and allocations are expected to be announced in June.  

Discussions are currently taking place around what help and assistance Self-Help-Housing will be able to give to organisations  which have been awarded  grants  and also to those who were unsuccessful.  Details of this will appear in due course.

 They appear on the Empty Homes Grant Programme pages under in the Community Grants Bidding section. Read the Introduction to understand what’s there and the Guidance for tips on completing the application form.     

Bidding closes on 17^th April 2012

The HCA have announced their allocations to registered providers which bid for funding, earlier this year, from the £70m Empty Homes Programme.  

Read Andrew Stunell’s Press Release announcing the allocations via the DCLG website here:http://www.communities.gov.uk/news/corporate/2099450

  A number of small community led  housing organisations around the country bid in partnership with registered housing associations and will benefit from these allocations.  

Meanwhile, bidding for the £30m Community Grants Programme remains open until 17th April 2012.    

On the 25 January, DCLG published the appliction guidance for Community and Voluntary groups applying for funding to bring Empty Homes back into use through the governments Empty Homes Programme.

Tribal who are adminstering the bidding process have now published the application form and further guidance notes.

You can read more about the process and download the full documents from our Empty Homes Community Grants programme bidding page.

Phoenix Housing Co-operative, based in Hackney, has almost completed the renovation of a disused property in Bow, Tower Hamlets, to provide studio flats for some of its members.

Under the co-op’s housing plus project, the Spey Street property, which was left empty for over five years, has been converted into nine studio flats for single people on low-incomes. The six-month renovation process began after they signed the lease in July last year.

Phoenix are hoping to find other properties for similar projects and will be bidding for the HCA Empty Properties Fund to support this work.

The Programme will be between £10m – £30m and bidding is expected to run from late January until the end of March 2012. The size of the programme will depend on the level of demand. Bidding is due to start in late January and will run until the end of March

Self-Help Housing.Org & HACT  are running a series of Briefing Events, aimed at helping community-led-organisations with bidding and securing funding allocations from the Community Grants Programme (CGP).

These regional events will be free of charge and will provide an opportunity to find out as much as possible about the way in which the Programme will work and the arrangements for bidding.  They will be running from 24 January 2012 to 10 February 2012 aroundEngland

 Jon Fitzmaurice, Director of Self-Help-Housing.Org, says, ‘These briefings will provide community-led groups with all the information that they need to bid for funding.  We hope that as many community organisations as possible are able to bring empty properties back into use’.

 For more information about the support that will be available to groups from self-help-housing.org & HACT  visit the Empty Homes Grants pages    

On Monday 21^st November the Coalition published  its  housing strategy document “Laying The Foundations: A Housing Strategy For England”

Chapter 5 sets out their Empty Homes Strategy which confirms that the already announced £100m Empty Homes Programme (2012-2015) will be divided into two separate fundingstreams:

The  HCA Empty Homes Programme: Bidding for this programme, to the HCA, is now open and runs until 23^rd January 2012. Community led self-help housing organisation can access the programme, but only via a  partnership with a registered social landlord (eg  a housing association). Further details this programme will appear very shortly on this site, in the section dealing with the Empty Homes Programme.

The Community Grants Programme: Bidding for this programme is currently delayed, pending the appointment of an intermediary agency that will administer it. Community led self-help housing organisations will be able to bid directly in their own right for funding. No date has been set for the commencement of bidding, but the deadline for bids will reflect the delay and is expected to be around late February. The Empty Homes Strategy states that this programme could be as much as £30m, subject to there being sufficient quality bids.

Full details of the CGP and bidding arrangements will appear on this site as soon as they are available.

You can read the full Housing Strategy Document here.

“Community and voluntary organisations will now be able to bid for part of £100m Government funding for pioneering housing schemes that will ensure empty properties that ruin neighbourhoods are lived in once again, and at the same time provide affordable housing. Many of these schemes will also have wider benefits such as providing excellent training opportunities for local people….. ……..Community and self help groups will now have the opportunity of applying for financial backing to tackle empty homes, with formal bidding guidance to be published shortly. Previously only conventional housing providers could apply. Community-led schemes are already doing excellent work in this area, as well as providing valuable skills for local people, helping them get a job and a roof over their heads”

 The Department of Communities & Local Government are now in the process of appointing an intermediary body to distribute the funding. This should be completed during November and bidding will start thereafter. The Programme is expected to amount to at least £10m

 Meantime, Tudor Trust has agreed to fund Self-Help-Housing.Org and HACT to run a Capacity Building Programme which will promote the Community Grants Programme to community led organisations and provide support to organisations wanting to bid. A new section will shortly appear on this website which will explain all about the Community Grants Programme  and what help will be available