Towns across England to receive £91m to refurbish over 6,000 empty homes.
- 24 Jun
Don Foster announces towns across England will benefit from empty homes funding.
The funding will be spent on refurbishment in areas where empty properties have commonly led to problems such as squatting, rat infestation and collapsing house prices which consequently drives remaining residents away.
Communities Minister Don Foster has announced the following:
The government is doing everything possible to tackle the problem of empty homes and urban blight. I'm announcing we're going to do even more, with towns across England benefiting from £91 million to refurbish over 6,000 empty properties to get them back into use. This will bring people, shops and jobs back to once abandoned areas, and provide extra affordable homes we so badly need.
The Communities and Local Government department announced the £91 million will be allocated predominately to the Midlands and the north, where issues are more severe. The funding is being allocated through two programmes:
Empty homes funding programme, will provide £61 million to successful bidders across England (excluding London)
Clusters of Empty Homes programme will provide £30 million for areas with acute problems such as Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle and Middlesbrough.
A further announcement on funding for London under the second round of the empty homes programme will be made soon. Further news will be available here.
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