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 “