{"id":9475,"date":"2015-02-04T16:48:24","date_gmt":"2015-02-04T16:48:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ihbconline.co.uk\/newsachive\/?p=9475"},"modified":"2015-02-04T16:48:24","modified_gmt":"2015-02-04T16:48:24","slug":"sg-4m-town-centre-empty-homes-fund-launched","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=9475","title":{"rendered":"SG \u00a34m Town Centre Empty Homes Fund launched"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new \u00a34 million fund has been launched by the Scottish Government (SG) this week, aiming to tackle vacancies within town centres and provide affordable accommodation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Scottish Government writes:
\n<\/span>Empty shops and properties which are blighting Scotland\u2019s town centres could be transformed into affordable housing thanks to a new \u00a34 million fund.\u00a0\u00a0 The Town Centre Empty Homes Fund will provide grant and loan funding to help increase the supply of housing in Scotland\u2019s urban and rural towns.<\/p>\n

The Fund, which will open for bids shortly, will offer funding to regenerate both homes which have been lying empty for long periods of time, and to convert empty commercial spaces into residential accommodation. The properties will then be available for affordable rent or sale.\u00a0 It comes on top of the work of the Shelter Scotland managed Empty Homes Partnership which recently had its funding doubled and received a three year extension, to help bring more private sector empty homes back into use.<\/p>\n

Housing Minister Margaret Burgess announced details of the new Fund at the Shelter Scotland Homelessness Conference. She said: \u2018Making sure everyone has access to affordable homes where they can feel safe and warm, is a priority for the Scottish Government. But it\u2019s not just about building new homes, we need to make better use of our existing housing stock and properties.\u00a0 It makes absolutely no sense for us to have more than 30,000 homes lying empty when homelessness still exists in Scotland. Empty shops and flats can be an eyesore in our communities, devaluing our properties and even encouraging anti-social behaviour. Bringing these empty properties back into use is a cost-effective way of increasing the supply of housing available to families across Scotland and it also aides community regeneration. By transforming derelict shops and flats into new homes, we will be able to inject some life back into our town centres and make them attractive places to live and work.\u2019<\/p>\n

Overall, the number of unoccupied properties (second homes and long term empty) is falling. Currently, 31,457 homes are recorded as being empty for six months or more.\u00a0 The Town Centre Empty Homes Fund is a mix of \u00a32 million grant and \u00a32 million loan funding and aims to target \u2018problem\u2019 empty homes and conversion of empty commercial space into residential.<\/p>\n

The new fund has been developed from lessons learned in rolling out the Empty Homes Loan Fund (\u00a34.5 million, projected to deliver more than 400 homes over a 10 year period), and Town Centre Housing Fund (\u00a32.75 million, 82 homes across seven towns). The fund complements the other activities the Scottish Government is implementing through the Town Centre Action Plan.<\/p>\n

View the news release<\/a><\/p>\n

IHBC newsblogs on regeneration<\/a><\/p>\n

IHBC newsblogs on funding<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new \u00a34 million fund has been launched by the Scottish Government (SG) this week, aiming to tackle vacancies within town centres and provide affordable accommodation.\u00a0 The Scottish Government writes: Empty shops and properties which are blighting Scotland\u2019s town centres … Continue reading →<\/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-9475","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\/9475","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=9475"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9476,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9475\/revisions\/9476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}