{"id":9453,"date":"2015-01-31T16:51:40","date_gmt":"2015-01-31T16:51:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ihbconline.co.uk\/newsachive\/?p=9453"},"modified":"2015-01-31T16:51:40","modified_gmt":"2015-01-31T16:51:40","slug":"dclg-empty-homes-record-low-housebuilding-7-year-high","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=9453","title":{"rendered":"DCLG: \u2018Empty homes @ record low &#8211; housebuilding @ 7 year high\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Details of the most recent \u2018new homes bonuses\u2019 awarded to English Councils as a result of successful delivery of housing allocations have been announced, with <\/span><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u00a31.2 billion allocated this year including news that 100,000 empty homes have been brought back into use since the bonus scheme was introduced.<\/span><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) writes:<br \/>\n<\/span>Communities across the country will be rewarded for their part in delivering hundreds of thousands of new homes, Housing Minister Brandon Lewis said today (30 January 2015).<\/p>\n<p>The minister published final allocations of New Homes Bonus payments to England\u2019s 353 councils \u2013 totalling \u00a31.2 billion this year.\u00a0 This brings the total awarded to councils since the scheme\u2019s introduction to \u00a33.4 billion, for delivering more than 700,000 new homes and conversions, and bringing over 100,000 empty homes back into use.\u00a0 The numbers of empty homes are now at a record low, while housebuilding starts are at a 7-year high.<\/p>\n<p>The New Homes Bonus is a powerful and transparent incentive for communities and councils to say yes to new development in their area.\u00a0 Launched in 2011, it is a permanent part of the local government finance system and matches the additional council tax raised for new homes and empty homes brought back into use for 6 years \u2013 with extra funding for new affordable homes.\u00a0 Councils are then free to use that funding as they see fit to benefit their local area \u2013 from providing new facilities, to protecting frontline services or simply freezing council tax.<\/p>\n<p>Housing Minister Brandon Lewis said: In the past councils were penalised for supporting new housebuilding \u2013 now, thanks to the New Homes Bonus, those that build are rewarded for it. Since the scheme\u2019s launch communities have received some \u00a33.4 billion for delivering over 700,000 new homes, and bringing empty homes down to a record low. It continues to offer a clear incentive for residents to say yes to new development \u2013 on top of the powers we\u2019ve given them to determine where homes get built in their area.<\/p>\n<p>Communities Minister Stephen Williams said: The New Homes Bonus payments we have made are a clear recognition of the effort councils have made to turn 100,000 empty properties into secure homes for families in need over the past 4 years. But while the numbers of empty homes are now at a record low, I want to see councils continuing their strong efforts to ensure we don\u2019t lose momentum and ensure we bring as many as possible back into use.<strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/news\/communities-rewarded-for-saying-yes-to-new-homes\" target=\"_blank\">View the full press release<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/policies\/increasing-the-number-of-available-homes\/supporting-pages\/new-homes-bonus\" target=\"_blank\">Download the full list of bonuses allocated<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?s=housing\" target=\"_blank\">IHBC newsblogs on housing<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Details of the most recent \u2018new homes bonuses\u2019 awarded to English Councils as a result of successful delivery of housing allocations have been announced, with \u00a31.2 billion allocated this year including news that 100,000 empty homes have been brought back &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=9453\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sector-newsblog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9453"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9454,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9453\/revisions\/9454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}