Providing council loans to bring empty properties into use | Housing network | Guardian Professional

Providing council loans to bring empty properties into use | Housing network | Guardian Professional

In 2005 Kent county council launched its No Use Empty (NUE) scheme, an initiative to tackle the county's 9,000 empty properties. Since then – during which time Kent has created more 2,100 new homes out of empty dwellings – the issue of empties has risen up the political agenda.
In April, the government-appointed architect and television presenter George Clarke as its first empty homes advisor. In the same way that Mary Portas has highlighted the plight of the high street, Clarke will raise awareness of the number of empty homes (thought to be as many as 750,000) to return them to use.
The government has already established an £80m empty homes fund. At the time of writing, approximately £60m of that pot has been allocated across 20 local authorities to fund schemes to bring these properties back into use.
Kent's No Use Empty – the UK's most successful empty homes project – provides a template that many other authorities look set to follow. Last year, Bristol city council and all authorities under the West of England banner adopted the scheme, a recognition of how effective it has been for Kent.