Policy Statement - RSLs

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The Empty Homes Agency is an
independent campaigning charity, which exists to highlight the waste of empty property in England and works with others to devise and promote sustainable solutions to bring empty property back into use.

Head Office:
The Empty Homes Agency 195-197 Victoria Street London SW1E 5NE Phone: 020 7828 6288 Fax: 020 7828 7006 Email: [email protected] Web: www.emptyhomes.com

Northern Office:
The Empty Homes Agency PO Box 3609 Barnsley S75 1WW Phone/Fax: 01226 390 093 Mobile: 07719 798 03 3

The Empty Homes Agency Policy statement on Registered Social Landlords
The Empty Homes Agency, an independent campaigning charity, has a two-fold mandate of raising awareness of the potential of empty homes and promoting sustainable solutions to bring more empty homes back into use. We have long been members of the National Housing Federation (NHF), the trade body for Registered Social Landlords (RSLs), and we are keen to continue to work together for mutual benefit. There have been a number of developments in our campaign on empty homes. In 2003 we succeeded in persuading the Government that the Council Tax discount on empty properties in areas of high demand should be abolished and that council tax data could be used for empty property work. Our long running campaign for a new power for local authorities of compulsory leasing finally bore fruit in late autumn of last year when the Government introduced an amendment to its own Housing Bill, introducing a new power of Empty Dwelling Management Orders. These powers will represent a new quick fix for local authorities to bring long-term problem private empty properties back into use. We are also very keen to help RSLs explore their potential role as managing agents for local authorities using these new management orders. The big issue for us is the issue of managing agents. Funding is increasingly being identified by regional housing boards, and new powers are coming on line for local authorities… but the key issue is who will manage these private properties, which make up 80% of the total number of empty homes in the country. Local authorities increasingly are not well positioned to manage this stock, many of whom have lost their direct housing function, and there is increasing interest in the private sector to provide a managing agent support service. The other key managing agent could be RSLs. This is happening across the country and there are some excellent examples of Housing Associations such as East Thames and Hyde in London and Tamar Housing Association in Plymouth. There are some excellent examples of RSLs making a success of private sector leasing. It is also good to see how Genesis Pathmeads have made such a success of the former South Hampstead Housing Association and their private stock. It will clearly not be for every RSL to manage formerly empty private homes, but with the excellent NHF initiative of ‘In Business for Neighbourhoods’ of which the Empty Homes Agency is a supporter, we feel that a strategic interest in empty property is a vital part of this wider initiative. The Empty Homes Agency is keen to work with the National Housing Federation, whilst recognising that empty homes work is not for all RSLs, to promote good work on this issue as part of the ‘In Business for Neighbourhoods’ initiative and show that there are RSLs making a successful business case out of this work. We would like to

The Empty Homes Agency is an
independent campaigning charity, which exists to highlight the waste of empty property in England and works with others to devise and promote sustainable solutions to bring empty property back into use.

Head Office:
The Empty Homes Agency 195-197 Victoria Street London SW1E 5NE Phone: 020 7828 6288 Fax: 020 7828 7006 Email: [email protected] Web: www.emptyhomes.com

Northern Office:
The Empty Homes Agency PO Box 3609 Barnsley S75 1WW Phone/Fax: 01226 390 093 Mobile: 07719 798 03 3

see more RSLs running private sector leasing schemes to bring more empty homes back into use. We would also like to work with the NHF to challenge both the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and the Housing Corporation to develop new incentives for RSLs to get involved in this line of work. We are sympathetic to the argument that there is a lack of incentive at the moment for RSLs, and we intend to work to develop thinking on this issue. We also intend to explore further the idea of RSLs working as zone agents on PSL and operating within a sub-region to increase the economies of scale. The other issue at the moment is the issue of empty property in the public stock and this is an issue, which is beginning to develop more momentum. There has clearly been vast improvement in the number of empty properties in the public sector, by which we include RSL stock. But it would be excellent to be able to prove that there was no problem in this sector. We have proposed undertaking some joint research with the NHF on this issue to resolve this point and give clear transparency on this issue. The Agency believes that together with RSLs we can make a powerful combination to bring more empty homes back into use, to develop successful business case models for RSLs and ultimately to bring more homes back into use to help those in housing need. August 2005

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