Communities Minister Don Foster has announced that towns across England will benefit from £91m to refurbish and bring back into use over 6,000 empty and derelict homes and commercial premises, particularly in the Midlands and North.
The funding is being allocated under two programmes:
· £61m from the second round of the empty homes funding programme provided to successful bidders eligible from all areas across England (except London, which will be announced separately) with empty homes. Around two thirds of this (£41m) is allocated by the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) to registered social landlords; and the remaining money to community and voluntary groups
· £30m second year award of Clusters of Empty Homes programme funding for twenty partnerships in areas of acute problems such as Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle and Middlesbrough which will bring around 3,500 homes back into use.
Don Foster said: ‘This will bring people, shops and jobs back to once abandoned areas, and provide extra affordable homes we so badly need. We have already made very good progress, cutting the number of long term empty homes by 40,000 but with thousands of people in this country desperate to buy a home and areas still suffering problems of urban blight we must go further still.’
HCA chief executive Andy Rose said: ‘We had a very encouraging response to the funding across a wide range of types of property. This demonstrates a strong appetite and scope for bringing empty homes and properties back into use, which will help to reinvigorate our communities and towns. We look forward to working with housing providers to bring these homes forward.’
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