February

2007
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….
2 The First Ever Empty Dwelling Management Order
3 Low Demand Project Update: Toxteth Regeneration
4 Events: Hard To Let Sheltered Housing
5 Resources
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1
A Word…

Those of you who read “Inside Housing” will no doubt be following the developing
story of newly built but empty flats in many of the city centres in this country. The
story is that many of the new developments that have sprung up in our city and town
centres are being left empty by developers who are more interested in the capital
value than any potential rental income. The London Evening Standard this week
gave a name to the phenomenon – Buy to Sit.

Leeds was highlighted as a particular case in point by Inside Housing. Apparently

50% of new flats there were empty. Salford was not much better with 40% empty.
Anybody who has visited Leeds in recent years cannot fail to have noticed the rapidly
changing skyline as new apartment blocks spring up like mushrooms in an Autumn
field. The centres of Manchester, Liverpool, and Birmingham as well as the river
frontage in London are experiencing much the same. What ever you might think of
them (and some of the architecture in my view is pretty unimaginative) there is no
doubt that these new developments are increasing housing supply. What’s more it’s
an increase in the high-density small household housing that we are told the country
desperately needs.

It’s this point that makes this story so interesting and potentially worrying. If the
housing that is being built is half empty it’s only meeting housing needs by half the
amount that planners and housing strategists had anticipated. At this rate the country
will need twice the projected growth in housing. It’s a potentially huge issue and I’m
grateful to Inside Housing for raising it. At this point however I remain still to be
convinced of the scale of the problem. I have no doubt it’s happening, but all of the
evidence I have seen is anecdotal and we have yet to see a survey that really
answers the question of how big a problem is this.

Whatever the extent there can be no doubt that we are seeing a new type of empty
housing. We are used to the idea of old shabby houses being empty. They’re easy to
spot and because their vacancy is usually as a result of neglect or failure it’s usually
pretty easy to work out what the solution should be. Helping with repairs, letting and
leasing options are all sensible approaches. Most people will accept the notion that
local authorities should take enforcement action where all else fails to deal with a
long-term empty run down house. But how does a local authority approach pristine
vacant flats in modern blocks deliberately left empty by their owners. They’re not
shabby, they’re not affecting neighbours, and there is no failure or neglect on behalf
of the owner. It’s deliberate. Most of the existing tools local authorities use to bring
empty homes back into use are likely to be ineffective or politically difficult in these
circumstances. So what do we do? Should local authorities be involved at all? I’m
afraid I don’t have the answers at the moment, but we may be on the threshold of a

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new type of empty homes issue that needs new thinking and new approaches. The
Empty Homes Agency is listening and would be grateful for your ideas.

David Ireland
Chief Executive
Empty Homes Agency
Tel: 020 7963 6883/4
Email: david.ireland@emptyhomes.com

T he Fir st Ever
Empty Dwelling
Management Order

This week sees the confirmation of the first ever Empty Dwelling Management Order
The order confirmed by the Residential Property Tribunal will allow South Oxfordshire
District Council to take over management control of a two-bedroom house in the
village of Berinsfield that has been empty for more than 10 years. Coming more than
6 months since the introduction of the legislation the scenario of a “mass house grab”
by local authorities predicated by the Daily Express amongst others has, it appears,
not materialised. If anything this case seems to be evidence that local authorities are
taking quite a sensible approach to this legislation. This appears to be a pretty clear-
cut case of abandonment by the owner and the council concluded that after months
of trying to engage the owner in a discussion about the property that an EDMO was
the best approach to getting this home back into use.

Although this is the first, there are other EDMOs in the pipeline Norwich City Council
announced last week that they were on the verge of applying for one, and half a
dozen or so other councils across the country are in a similar position.

This is welcome news, but of course the real indicator of success is not how many
EDMO s are made but how many empty homes come into use as a result. The
impact of legislation can and should be much wider than the amount of enforcement
activity. How many empty home owners decide to bring their property back into use

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to avoid being caught. We may never know the whole answer. But one intriguing
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piece of information came out of a trip I made to Manchester late last year.
Manchester City Council has started using the new legislation on fifteen occasions
since last July. But each time the owner has either sold or let the property.

For further information please contact:

David Ireland
Chief Executive
Empty Homes Agency
Tel: 020 7963 6883/4
Email: david.ireland@emptyhomes.com

Low Demand Project Update:

Toxteth Regeneration
Ciara Leeming
ROWS of boarded-up properties stand shrouded in silence. The streetlamps packed
up long ago, leaving some forlorn outdoor fairy lights the only source of light.
Arriving on Cairns Street, in the heart of Liverpool’s vibrant Toxteth district, on a dank
winter evening feels like wandering onto the set of an apocalyptic movie.

Home to just 10 households and more than 50 derelict properties, its once-elegant
two-up, two-downs are starting to crumble and crack through neglect. The remaining
residents try to make the street attractive, painting empty buildings, planting hanging
baskets and pots and displaying fairy lights.

But nothing can mask a nagging sense that this area is waiting for something.
The fate of Cairns Street, and three neighbouring roads which with it make up the
Granby Triangle, is uncertain.

For more than a decade, locals have waited to learn which of their homes will be
bulldozed and which refurbished under plans for a £27m redevelopment. No firm

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decision has yet been made, but a consultation was carried out by the developer,
Lovell, and a report is due before Liverpool City Council over the coming months.
Meanwhile, however, the rot has set in. Rented properties stopped being maintained,
which in turn drove tenants away and left homes empty.

The uncertainty and dereliction puts off potential buyers and local owners struggle to
borrow the cash for home improvements.

As properties become vacant, contractors secure doors and windows with metal
security grilles and remove bay windows they deem to be dangerous.

The situation has left locals feeling resentful and neglected. Many suspect they are
being deliberately squeezed out of the area – just 10 minutes walk from the city
centre – to make way for homes the working class community cannot afford.
Hazel Tilley, 51, a Granby resident for more than three decades, says: “We’re seeing
the slow death of a once-thriving community. These are beautiful streets but since
these plans were announced, Granby’s been ghettoised and its cohesion destroyed.
“The dereliction’s horrendous but we have no way of doing anything about it. We
can’t get anything repaired and the buildings are rotting before our very eyes.
“To people here this feels like a deliberate attempt to demoralise us and drive us out
so young professionals can move in. We’re not against development if we are able to
benefit from it. But we want renovation and not demolition.”

The Granby project is being paid for by the city council but similar schemes are
taking place across inner-city Liverpool, under the Housing Market Renewal Initiative.
The programme, known as Pathfinder, uses government funding to rejuvenate run-
down areas.

Seven out of nine schemes are in the North of England: Manchester/Salford,

Newcastle/Gateshead, East Lancashire, Oldham and Rochdale, South Yorkshire,
East Riding and Humberside.

It has sparked outrage in parts of Liverpool, where critics accuse the council of
concentrating too heavily on demolition at the expense of home improvement.
More than 3,750 homes are due to be bulldozed in the city’s Pathfinder areas
between now and 2018.

Like their counterparts in Edge Lane – who in November persuaded a judge to quash
dozens of compulsory purchase orders – and other parts of Liverpool, campaigners
in Granby want existing terraces adapted to meet modern structural and
environmental standards.

Liverpool’s Liberal Party is a fierce critic of its clearance programme and campaigned
on an anti-demolition platform at last year’s local elections.

They say the scheme is driving low-earners out of the city, and pushing house prices
out of reach of most local people, fuelling debt.

And they claim the neglect of areas like Granby is a deliberate tactic aimed at
clearing the way for redevelopment.

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Group leader, Cllr Steve Radford, says: “The council’s attitude seems to be that if
people dare to resist, their community will be run down by stealth until they leave. I
don’t believe there is a malicious intent there, but more of a political calculation.
“By emptying housing association and council homes and boarding them up, the
market is prevented from operating normally. The areas are left to rot until residents
get fed up and move away.”

Deliberate or not, the pattern is happening. Across the city in Anfield and Breckfield,
a Pathfinder area where phased demolition is just beginning, the mood among
residents changed from reluctance to leave to desperation to escape, as the
dereliction attracts drug addicts, vandals and social blight.

Margaret Smith, 62, of Vienna Street, is one of dozens of residents stranded with
vacant properties all around. Her home of 42 years is in one of the last stages of the
scheme and she must wait seven to nine years to be bought out by the council.
She says: “It is horrendous and we all just want out. This used to be a lovely area,
and when we heard about the plans we didn’t want to leave, but it’s got worse and
worse and we’re now living in a slum. There is terrible anti-social behaviour every
night and we are terrified. But we are stuck here.”

Liverpool City Council is partway through a review of its demolition plans, and may
be forced to scale it back as central government slashes funding for Pathfinder.
But the authority is adamant that it has the support of the majority affected by
housing renewal and says proper consultation was carried out in all areas.
Liberal Democrat Cllr Frank Doron, assistant executive member for housing, says
criticism of the policy is unfair. He is keen to stress that efforts are being made to
support residents in redevelopment areas, through environmental works, improved
security and financial assistance.

He says: “Unfortunately we can’t please everyone, and communities are inevitably

divided over what is going on. Some residents want their housing replaced while
others don’t and are very vocal about it.

“Liverpool Council hasn’t run anywhere down – it has happened naturally over a
number of years. All these areas we are talking about have seen serious decline and
under-investment over a number of decades.

“I am not one for letting the bulldozers run amok but this is about listening to what
communities themselves feel is the way forward.
“Having heard the views of many residents who want this scheme to go ahead, I am
certain what we’re doing is right.”

For further information please contact

John Earnshaw
Low Demand Project Manager
Empty Homes Agency
Tel: 01226 390093
Email: john.earnshaw@emptyhomes.com

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Events:

LEPOF - The Next London Empty Property Officers Forum will be held on:
Friday 23 Feb 2007 AM.

For more information click on the link below:

http://www.emptyhomes.com/help_you/projects/lepof/lepof.html

Hard To Let Sheltered Housing – 14th March 2007

Book your place today to find out:

 why sheltered housing has to change

 what prospective residents are looking for and why they aren’t finding it
 where to look for new client groups
 how older schemes can be successfully remodelled and refurbished
 when it is appropriate to widen allocation criteria
 how to market empty homes effectively

Or for further information please click below:

http://www.emptyhomes.com/news/event/events.html

* * * * * * * * * * * * *
For more info please look at our website:
http://www.emptyhomes.com/eventspages/events.htm

Resour ces

Low Demand: Audit Commission: Housing Market Renewal

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The government's Housing Market Renewal Programme has been in place for over four
years, tackling the problem of declining demand for housing in the North and Midlands. This
report reviews the progress pathfinders are making, explores some of the emerging issues
and looks forward to the challenges and policy changes of a developing government agenda.