March

2005
THE EMPTY HOMES AGENCY
Monthly News Bulletin

Empty Homes Agency, 195 – 197 Victoria Street, London, SW1E 5NE
Tel: 020 7828 6288 Email: shashi@emptyhomes.com

Statements in this newsletter are for guidance only and the Empty Homes Agency will not accept liability for losses resulting
from reliance on them. Professional advice should always be obtained.
Table of Contents

1 A Word From The Chief

1 Homelessness Organisations, The Council and Homeless
People in Brent are behind 2 pioneering initiatives: Brent
Homelessness Charter and The Empty Homes Campaign
2 Homeless Prisoners In London
2 Compulsory Purchase – Exclusion Clauses From Loss
Payment
3 Community Support Worker with the Empty Homes Agency
– A new and challenging role
4 Events
3 Resources
E M P T Y H O M E S A G E N C Y

1
A Word From The Chief
Jonathan Ellis, Chief Executive
Dear all,

Another busy month has gone by with loads to report back on.

High on our agenda is low demand at the moment with the current Select
Committee investigation into the housing market renewal pathfinders. As we’ve
stated before we are firmly in support of the housing market renewal
programme for tackling low demand. We think that the long-term, sub-regional
approach on low demand taken by the Government is visionary.

Yet, as we’ve commented in the ‘Daily Telegraph’ and other papers, we are
becoming concerned at the implementation of these programmes and our
concern is that demolition is becoming a default position.

Over the last three years our position has changed on low demand – we no
longer will defend every single property – I’ve seen some that are beyond
action and need demolition. But in saying that we also believe that there are
many creative solutions out there, which should be actively considered before
demolition.

Our low demand project manager, John Earnshaw (based in our Barnsley
office) has been invited onto the new ODPM housing market renewal advisory
group, which is great news for us and will give us an excellent opportunity to
convey our views on this important subject.

Interest in our conference on RSLs and empty homes on 21st April is also
booming – do please book soon if you would like a place at this event (details
on our web site www.emptyhomes.com) It is excellent to have received the
support of the Housing Corporation, the National Housing Federation and the
Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for this important event.

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E M P T Y H O M E S A G E N C Y

We are also supporting Government Office for the East of England with their
event on 16th March entitled ‘Empty Homes in the East of England – Incentive
and Intervention’ – it is great to see a Government Office being so pro-active in
encouraging work on empty homes.

I have also met with John Hayes MP, the Conservative front bench spokesman
on housing, who is currently working on the new Conservative housing policy.
It remains encouraging how much cross party interest there is around tackling
empty homes.

And there’s more, but that is probably enough for this month!

With all best wishes,

Jonathan Ellis
Chief Executive
Empty Homes Agency
Tel: 020 7963 6883
Email: jonathan.ellis@emptyhomes.com

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E M P T Y H O M E S A G E N C Y

3
2
Homelessness Organisations, The
Council and Homeless People in
Brent are behind 2 pioneering
initiatives: Brent Homelessness
Charter and The Empty Homes
Campaign

Brent is the first borough to adopt a costumer

promise – for homeless people, and to embark
on a local Empty Homes Campaign

Brent Homelessness Charter had been

developed by a group of local homeless
people (Brent Homeless User Group). The
initiative offers for the first time a clear
promise for quality services for homeless
people ‘Brent Homelessness Charter.’ Danny
Maher, B.HUG Chairman explains: “ This is
the first time that homeless people are getting a charter promising them quality

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services – it is something that all of us who are not homeless, expect but it is
not always the case for those who are.” The innovative charter was adopted by
all organisations, 18 in total, that provide services to homeless people in Brent,
including Brent Council.

Brent Homeless User Group (B.HUG) was established 3 years ago by

homeless people. B.HUG members, a majority of which are homeless, aim to
work together to ensure that the quality and range of services provided to
homeless people are appropriate to their needs. B.HUG also gives homeless
people a voice.

B.HUG started its “Empty Homes Campaign”. The campaign is a local

response to a growing problem of lack of affordable accommodation, resulting
in increasing numbers of homeless people and long-stay in temporary
accommodation. The campaign aims to encourage Brent’s Residents to report
empty properties to the council through the use of a well-designed, self-
addressed postcard (to Brent Council) to deliver this message. The postcards
are widely available to the public in locations around the borough, such as:
Libraries, Clinics, Churches, etc. A person wishing to report an empty property
should complete the postcard and post it directly to the council. This is the first
campaign of this kind in the UK.

The charter and the Empty Homes Campaign

were launched on the 13th January 2004 at the
Willesden Green Library complex. The successful
event saw 40 homeless people and 30
representatives of Brent homeless agencies
coming together to celebrate those two initiatives.
The guests of honour were Diarmuid Gavin, a
keen supporter of the homelessness cause and
better known as the Irish gardener from BBC2 who praised the Charter, as one
that spells out the rights of homeless people, and John Bird, the Chief Editor of
the Big Issue who spoke passionately of homeless people’s need to become
active in shaping their own lives. Other special guests were John Ellis, the
Chief Executive of the national Empty Homes Agency who welcomed the
Empty Homes Campaign as the first one to offer a local solution to this
growing problem, and Colin Moone Assistant Director of Housing Needs &
Private Sector, Brent Council, who emphasized the commitment of Brent
Council to both the Charter and the Empty Homes Campaign.

17 January 2005

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E M P T Y H O M E S A G E N C Y

Local group of homeless people to launch a

pioneering Empty Homes Campaign in Brent

Brent Homeless User Group (B.HUG) is a local group of homeless people.

B.HUG was established 3 years ago by homeless people. B.HUG members
aim to work together to ensure that the quality and range of services provided
to homeless people are appropriate to their needs. B.HUG also gives
homeless people a voice.

Recently, B.HUG launched its “Empty Homes Campaign”; the campaign is a

local response to a growing problem of lack of affordable accommodation,
resulting in increasing numbers of homeless people and long-stay in temporary
accommodation. The campaign aims to encourage Brent’s Residents to report
empty properties to the council through the use of a well-designed, self-
addressed postcard (to Brent Council) to deliver this message. The postcards
are widely available to the public in locations around the borough, such as:
Libraries, Clinics, Churches, etc. A person wishing to report an empty property
should complete the postcard and post it directly to the council. This is the first
campaign of this kind in the UK.

This initiative was developed and turned into

reality by homeless people, demonstrating
the importance they give to the re-use of
empty properties.

Jonathan Ellis, the Chief Executive of the

Empty Homes Agency, who have joined us to
the Launch event of the campaign, had said:

“B.HUG’s campaign is the first one in the UK. The first time there is a real
attempt to create a local solution to this problem, and therefore it should be
used as a blueprint to the rest of the country to follow.”

For further information, please contact:

Atara Fridler-Boyle
B.HUG Project Manager
Tel: 020 8208 4949
Mobile: 07906855245
Email: ataraf@yahoo.com

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E M P T Y H O M E S A G E N C Y

3
Homeless Prisoners In
London
“I’m NFA when I get out of this place Guv and I keep coming back here – can
you find me somewhere to live?”

NFA means No Fixed Abode, homeless, nowhere to live.

I work for St Mungo’s, London’s largest charity working with the homeless and
those at risk of homelessness. Should you like to know more about what we
do then have a look at www.mungos.org. I manage St Mungo’s Prison
Services and one of the most difficult situations we face is trying to find NFA
prisoners somewhere to live when they leave custody.

Recently I have been contributing to a GOL (Government Office for London)

organised group tasked with suggesting potential solutions to the
accommodation crisis as it affects people who live in London and who are
being released from prison with nowhere to live. It was this focus that made
me think again about the achievements of the Empty Homes Agency and it
occurred to me that we may be able to work together.

Just a few of the potential benefits to be gained by providing accommodation

for ex-prisoners:

• A safer community and a lower rate of re-offending

• More opportunity for people to gain and maintain employment and to
make a positive contribution to their community
• Fewer people living in squats and crack houses and fewer properties
being squatted and/or turned into crack houses
• Improvements in the appearance of what may otherwise be an empty
home and an eyesore in the neighbourhood

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E M P T Y H O M E S A G E N C Y

You may be aware of the Social Exclusion Unit’s report “Reducing re-offending
by ex-prisoners”. The SEU highlighted a huge range of issues that contribute
to re-offending the most significant of which is homelessness.

In our communities, the foundation upon which rehabilitative work begins and
continues requires that someone have somewhere to call home. Prisons are
changing and reaching out to the communities that they serve and, the Prison
Service and the Probation Service are coming together in a new organisation,
the National Offender Management Service. The objective of NOMS is to
reduce the numbers of people who re-offend and come back into custody.

• An individual released from prison with somewhere to live is 20% less

likely to re-offend than someone who is homeless upon release
• In a period of 2 years if 100 ex-prisoners are found somewhere to live
then 20 of them won’t have re-offended simply because they have
somewhere to call home. There are great benefits both for the ex-
prisoners and for the people in the communities in which they live.
• It costs £160,000 over the course of a year to put one re-offending ex-
prisoner back through the Criminal Justice System
• There are huge financial considerations too - 20 people multiplied by
£160k is some £3.2million…one can readily scale this up, what if we
were to consider significantly greater numbers of people? A thousand
and more every year…grab your calculator and work it out. Yes, there
really are that many people being released from custody who have
nowhere to call home.

I am told that there are around 37,500 privately owned properties in London
that have been empty for more than six months, though this figure is down by
more than 5,000 from the previous year, due no doubt in great part to the work
carried out by Empty Homes Teams operating at the sharp end.

We would like to ask for your help. Would you consider allowing us to access
to a small number of the properties brought back into use as a result of the
work you do, to accommodate homeless prisoners who have a local
connection to the borough? Could we work together in partnership to help a
few of the people leaving prison secure somewhere to live?

Having talked to a number of staff working in Empty Homes Teams I

understand that sometimes there may be properties brought back into use that
may be better suited for use by single people, single people are a very high
proportion of our client group.

The type of accommodation mentioned to me includes flats above shops,

properties converted to self contained bed sitters, maybe places with 106
agreements, perhaps somewhere in need of a modicum of improvement work
and unsuitable for families – you are the experts and know far more about
what might be possible than I. You have the local and specialised knowledge
to think about what could be achieved in your borough. We can tell you how

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E M P T Y H O M E S A G E N C Y

many people from your borough come into custody each month and some of
these numbers may come as a surprise.

There are a few other ideas that may be worth consideration:

• Is there an opportunity to consider using some properties brought back

into use to provide affordable accommodation for a few of London’s
Key Workers?
• In a multi unit property there could be a clearly defined Key Worker
caretaker role to be delivered at agreed times to provide support and
advice to ex-prisoners living in the same property
• Over time we may be able to think about using ex-prisoners skills in
aspects of property and green space renovation and maintenance

What do you think? Do you have questions and suggestions? Is there the
potential for us to work together? Perhaps we could try something small scale
in your borough to demonstrate what we could achieve? Would you like to
explore the possibilities? Thank you for reading this far and please do get in
touch.

Dominic Raffo
Manager, St Mungo’s Prison Services
Mobile: 0771 469 9600
E: Dominic.Raffo@hmps.gsi.gov.uk

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E M P T Y H O M E S A G E N C Y

Compulsory Purchase
– Exclusion Clauses
From Loss Payment
4
You may remember that a year or so ago the Empty Homes Agency, with strong
support from the City of Westminster, fought an unsuccessful battle with the
ODPM on the Planning and CPO Bill concerning new provisions on compensation
for empty homes owners.

Despite gaining the sympathy of ministers, we got no changes before the Bill
became an Act. After a meeting that we set-up at ODPM, the dynamic East
Midlands Empty Property Forum took upon themselves to respond formally on
why the current list of exemptions do not help empty property work. And we re-
produce their letter below.

This action is a great example of what Empty Property Fora (or even Forums!)
can achieve by focussing on an issue of concern to them in their work of
bringing empty homes back into use. We would certainly encourage other
empty property fora or local authorities to do likewise if you agree with this
powerful argument.

We will keep you posted!

_________________________________________________________

I am writing in my capacity as Chair of the East Midlands Empty Property

Forum to comment on the list of exclusions from loss payment contained in
Schedule 15 of the Housing Bill.

This issue was considered in detail by the Forum, which comprises of

Representatives from the local authorities in the Region.

Our opinion is that the prime objective is to bring the empty home back into
use and not to legally require repairs and improvement to a house in disrepair.
If the empty home was already in good repair but just left empty, these actions
would be not available to the Local Authority anyway.

The Forum is firmly of the view that the exclusions listed do not relate in any
way to the process of bringing empty homes back into use. Whilst we accept
these Notices and Orders have the effect of improving the housing stock, they
are not for the purpose of bringing empty homes back into use. Indeed, using
these Notices as part of the process will only involve Empty Homes
Practitioners (EHP’s) in unnecessary work and prolong the overall time taken
to achieve this. The Notices and Orders will require Officers to carry out a

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E M P T Y H O M E S A G E N C Y

detailed inspection of the house and analyse the findings to make a legal
decision on the appropriate course of action. This decision would then be
open to a legal appeal, which could be used by the owner to delay the process
even further. In addition this would lead to additional costs in officer time and
training in order to carry out the necessary detailed assessments.

Listed below are specific comments in relation to each of the Notices/Orders

specified and how these do not relate to empty homes. None of the following
actions will lead to the property being brought back into use and some
specifically would prevent this occurring.

S215 Town & Country Planning Act 1990

This only applies to visual amenity and frontage of the property (e.g. clearing
refuse and repainting) and is therefore not applicable to all empty properties.

S48 Planning (Listed Buildings & Conservation Areas) 1990

This relates to properties listed or in conservation areas. Some empty
properties may qualify but very few fall within this category.

S189 Housing Act 1985

This relates to unfit properties and as such there is a requirement to undergo
an exercise in deciding the most satisfactory course of action (MSCA). Not all
empty properties are unfit and there would be a requirement for the empty
homes officer or appropriate officer to serve a notice and undergo the MSCA
exercise. This would require a full inspection of the house and would be
subject to legal appeal.

S190 Housing Act 1985

This relates to properties in substantial disrepair and requires action outlined
above except that the MSCA would not be undertaken.

S264 Housing Act 1985 Closing Order

This is undertaken when a property is found to be unfit under S604 of 1985
Housing Act. The MSCA would determine whether the property should be
closed and therefore not be used for human habitation. Again complete
inspection and the MSCA process would need to be completed.

S265 Housing Act 1985

Demolition Order – as above except the property would be demolished.
Obviously this is not relevant when the prime objective is to bring the house
back into use.

Housing Act 2004 Notices and Orders

S11
Relates to the improvement of a property found to have a category 1 hazard
which would warrant direct action from the Local Authority. Again the empty
property may not have any category 1 hazards.

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E M P T Y H O M E S A G E N C Y

S12
As above except for the presence of a lesser hazard.

Both these actions would require a full inspection and assessment of both the
interior and external parts of the house.

S20-21
Relate to unfit properties prohibiting their use because of the presence of a
category 1 or 2 hazard. Empty homes are already NOT in use.

S43
As above.

S265
Where category 1 or 2 hazard exist but to the extent that the property requires
demolition. Comments are S265 of the 1985 Housing Act above apply.

We strongly request you to consider extending the list of exclusions to include

a “Notice” which states that the house has been empty for over six months and
as such would be excluded from any addition loss payment if compulsory
purchase action was taken. The owner would be fully aware of the situation
and this may in fact encourage him or her to bring the house back into use.

I hope the above comments are useful and illustrate the problems and
additional obstacles being placed on EHP’s in their attempts to bring empty
homes back into use.

I look forward to receiving your comments and would be glad to meet with you
to discuss this in more detail and provide practical examples of problems that
would illustrate the issues raised.

If you like to know more please contact:

John Towl
Chair of East Midlands Empty Property Forum
Tel: (01604) 838546
Email: jtowl@northampton.gov.uk

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E M P T Y H O M E S A G E N C Y

Community Support
Worker with the Empty
Homes Agency – A new
5
and challenging role
By Stephanie Beresford
I joined the Empty Homes Agency on the 4th of January this year after having
spent the previous two years working for Sheffield City Council, in both the
public and Private Sector Housing departments. When I first began working for
the Council, I was a Housing Officer on the ‘Park Hill’ housing estate. I worked
on the rents team covering the upper half of the estate and was responsible for
helping to reduce the high level of arrears which comprises almost 1000
properties.

I remember being told that the area was formally described as ‘Inner city
deprived.’ It had suffered from a severe lack of investment and was well known
throughout the city for its numerous problems with drug dealing, prostitution
and other types of crime and anti-social behaviour. I remember coming home
after my first day at work and telling my auntie, with whom I lived at the time,
which estate I had been posted to. Her response was “Well, I won’t tell your
mother if you don’t want me to.” My mother apparently, had feared my
involvement in any such area. She remembered stories of a television being
thrown from balcony on the Park Hill Estate some twenty or so years earlier,
which had apparently resulted in the death of an unsuspecting child playing
below.

Despite, this terrible story, I was however quite excited at the prospect of
working in such an area. I’m quite a caring person and have a positive nature.
I knew that I wanted to work for an organisation that wasn’t solely about profit
and in a role where I would be helping people. I also prefer to offer solutions
rather than sympathy and hoped that by taking on the role of Housing Officer
within the Local Authority, I was fulfilling each of these desires.

You might be wondering how working as a rents officer, would enable me to

help people, but gone are the days where working on a rents team is just
about collecting rent money, or evicting people. My role enabled me to offer
positive advice to a whole range of people from refugees, asylum seekers, ex-
offenders, care leavers, families and the elderly on low incomes and the
mentally and physically disabled. Many of them had their problems, some of
them had made poor choices in life, some of them had come from unstable

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homes or had a poor educational background and were unable to access, or

maintain employment (I noticed that quite a number of the tenants I had
contact with were illiterate). Many people felt they had little or no choice about
being housed in an area of low demand and low rents. Some of the residents
had lived in the area for a long time and didn’t want to move. They
remembered the neighbourhood as a place where people once wanted to live
and were keen to regain a sense of community and responsibility towards the
welfare of their neighbours. These people tended to blame the problems on
local government, who having failed to invest money in the area over a
substantial number of years, had reduced the quality of the housing and
reduced the neighbourhood to one of ‘low demand’ subsequently attracting a
large number of people, who had little or no choice but to be housed there.
What was obvious however was the fact that most of them were unhappy
about living in such a terrible area and deserved a chance at having something
better.

Having gained an insight into the problems of low demand and public sector
housing, I moved to the post of Housing Officer within the department of
Private Sector Housing. Once there I assisted in establishing Sheffield City
Council’s Empty Property Team. The team was set up in response to the
Empty Homes Agency’s request that local authorities should recognise the
potential of bringing empty homes within their locality back in to use. With
particular attention being paid to areas previously affected by housing market
failure, but where there was now an increase in demand for housing.

Like the Empty Homes Agency, the team had a dual role. It aimed to
encourage owners of privately owned empty properties to bring their property
back in to use voluntarily, though there was also an enforcement side, which
allowed statutory action to be taken against any owner who unreasonably
refused to bring their empty property back into use. I enjoyed working on the
team for a period of ten months and the experience that I gained proved
invaluable. However, the youthfulness of the team meant that there was the
lack of any valuable contact with the members of the public and I felt that I
wanted to further my career by working in a more advisory role.

Armed with the experience of working within inner city neighbourhoods, where
there was the issue of low demand affecting the residents of both public and
private sector housing, I signed on with several employment agencies, who
deal specifically with housing personnel. After a few months, I was fortunate
enough to be told of the availability of what is now my current post with the
Empty Homes Agency on the Low Demand Project.

The Low Demand Project was established in 2004 in response to the need for
tackling the problems of low demand and an increase in the number of empty
homes. As Community Support Project Worker for the Low Demand Project
my aim is to:

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E M P T Y H O M E S A G E N C Y

• Liaise with individuals and community groups, to identify the issues,

which relate specifically to the problems of low demand in the area in
which they live.

• Offer independent advice and support to individuals, community groups

and other organisations coping with problems of working or living within
areas of low demand.

• Encourage people living within areas of low demand to participate in

the consultation process regarding their community, so that they may
have a say in its future.

• Encourage partnership working between the Empty homes Agency,

community groups and other organisations whose shared aim is to
regenerate and rebuild communities in areas of low demand.

I am excited by the prospect of working for the Empty Homes Agency as it

works independently and is free from much of the bureaucracy that affects
other organisations. This will enable me to be more creative when promoting
the services that the agency has to offer. It will also give me more
independence, in relation to how I and the individuals or Community Groups
that I work with, address the issues affecting the lives of people living in areas
of low demand.

My guess based on experience is that, when given a choice, most people will
probably want to live in a neighbourhood that is prosperous and which enables
people to access education, social and employment opportunities and other
local amenities. Having access to these is vital to increasing and maintaining
our psychological and emotional wellbeing as well as our personal wealth and
stability, all of which is fed back into our homes and daily lives. But with the
need to build more sustainable communities and to balance the demand for
housing with supply, the focus is very much on listening to what the people at
the heart of those communities have to say about their future and then
delivering it to them.

I accept that each of the communities affected by low demand are likely to
have an individual set of problems, due to a variation in location, local housing
markets, home ownership, community make-up and local economy. This
means that the housing solutions will be both individual and complex, and
there will be a need to understand the problems faced from all sides of the
debate. I hope that by getting people involved in community discussion, that
they will also have the chance to gain a greater understanding of the issues
faced by the housing providers involved and the decision making process.
However, the emphasis is still very much on empowering the individuals and
communities that are involved, as this will give people the skills and confidence
they need to enable discussion between themselves and other organisations
whose shared aim is to regenerate and rebuild their community.

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6
If you feel that you, your group or organisation will benefit from my assistance
and are interested in discussing ways in which we can work together, then
please do not hesitate to contact me.

Stephanie Beresford
Community Support Project Worker
Low Demand Project
Empty Homes Agency
Northern Office
Tel: (0114) 2654122
Email: Stephanie.beresford@emptyhomes.com

Events
Empty Homes in the East of England - Intervention and Incentive - Wednesday
16th March 2005 - The Maltings Ely Cambs - A free one day conference for
organisations in the region who have an interest in bringing empty properties back into
use.

The Empty Homes Agency is also very keen to promote an excellent event being
arranged by Government Office for the East of England. This event (details below) is
designed to encourage local authorities with the possibilities around empty homes. We
congratulate GO East on this excellent event and know that they are receiving a lot of
interest from across the region. It is also an excellent example of how a Government
Office can help empty homes work - food for thought for other regions maybe?

To find out more click below:

http://www.emptyhomes.com/publicrelations/events.htm

21st April 2005, Central London

The Empty Homes Agency is pleased to announce a major event for RSLs to explore
the opportunities around the use of empty properties in the light of the new Housing
Act. The conference will be a significant step in understanding and devising alternative
strategic options to bringing empty properties back into use, utilising the new powers in

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the Housing Act and other innovative ideas.

7
To find out more please click on the link below:

http://www.emptyhomes.com/publicrelations/events.htm#pslconfapr05

Or call Helen Ashby at the Empty Homes Agency on 020 7963 6882

Tackling your Empty Homes and Low Demand - Helps to Sustain our
Communities!

The Event

Big efforts by the Government and the Market Renewal Pathfinders to tackle
our declining communities which have an abundance of long term empty
homes and low demand, seems to be gathering increased momentum,
especially now that the ODPM (Housing, Planning. Local Government and
the Regions Committee) have recently published the 'Written Evidence' on
'Empty Homes and Low Demand Pathfinders'. This new challenging,
informative and innovative one-day seminar jointly organised by the
Chartered Institute of Housing and the Empty Homes Agency will update
delegates on empty homes, low demand and sustaining communities. Be
one of the first to hear what the experts have to say, so don't delay - book
your place today!!

To find out more please click on the link below:

http://www.emptyhomes.com/publicrelations/events.htm#ld250505

Or call John Earnshaw on 01226 390093

* * * * * * * * * * * * *
For more info please look at our website:

http://www.emptyhomes.com/eventspages/events.htm

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Resources
To help you bring those empties back into use,
here are some tools for the toolbox.
Have a look at our brand new website packed full of good practice
resources:

Information For Local Authorities

New Resources For Empty Property Practitioners:

http://www.emptyhomes.com/la/lahome.htm

Campaign Action

New Resources For Campaigners:

http://www.emptyhomes.com/whatwedo/action.htm#campack

Low Demand Project

New Low Demand Articles:

http://www.emptyhomes.com/ld/lowdhome.htm#ldarticle

New Low Demand Community Support Project page:

http://www.emptyhomes.com/ld/lowdsupport.htm

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