October

2006
THE EMPTY HOMES AGENCY
Monthly News Bulletin

Empty Homes Agency, 195 – 197 Victoria Street, London, SW1E 5NE
Tel: 020 7828 6288 Email: shashi@emptyhomes.com
Statements in this newsletter are for guidance only and the Empty Homes Agency will not accept
liability for losses resulting from reliance on them. Professional advice should always be obtained.
Table of Contents

1 A Word….
2 National Week Of Action 2006
3 After A Successful Summers – What’s Next?
4 Greater power for London as Government hands mayor key
powers
5 RSL Update: Private Sector Leasing Scheme in Amber
Valley
6 WORDS…and some thoughts on how they are used from an
Empty property officer
7 Events
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1
A Word…
Jonathan Ellis, Chief Executive
Dear all,

You know I sometimes wonder, when I start writing my column for our bulletin,
whether any-one will read it?

Since May 2004, we have put out a bulletin each month (except for the time that I
was covering for Shashi, when I didn’t quite make every month!), but I have received
very little feedback about my column.

I really hope that all that can change this month, and I say that because we have just
been approached by the National Housing Federation to produce a joint publication
on RSLs tackling empty homes.

We are now working on producing a number of case studies featuring RSLs, which
are working to bring private empty homes back into use to meet housing need, and
we would love to use this opportunity to highlight all the good practice around the
country.

So if you work for an RSL that is engaged in empty property work or if you work for a
local authority that works in partnership with a RSL on empty properties, then do
please get in touch.

This is a great breakthrough for us and it will be superb for the NHF to be promoting
what some of its members are doing to tackle the problem of empty homes. We do
see RSLs as being a key part of the solution, and it would be great to have as many
case studies as possible from all over the country.

We don’t need much – 200-300 words and a photo or two? But do please spread the
word, as we really do need to use this great opportunity.

Thanks for reading my column and for any help or ideas you may be able to offer us!

With all best wishes,

Jonathan Ellis
Chief Executive
Empty Homes Agency
Tel: 020 7963 6883
Email: jonathan.ellis@emptyhomes.com

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2
National Week Of Action
2006

Some of the events planned for the week....

Here's a quick brief on the activities of Herts, Beds and Buck and also for
London Commuter Belt Empty homes groups

 Authorities within the Herts, Beds and Bucks Empty Homes Forum will
be taking a roadshow to key towns within their areas talking to
members of the public about the issues of empty homes and how they
can be addressed.

 Several of the Authorities within the newly formed London Commuter

Belt Empty Homes Forum are running a poster campaign to raise
awareness of empty homes, together with a hotline number to put
people in touch with their empty homes officer.

If you have planned an event and want it put up on the site for free, with
press releases or other promotional material get in contact with Shashi
Ioannides at the Empty Homes Agency.

For further information please contact

Shashi Ioannides
Communications Manager
Empty Homes Agency
Tel: 020 7963 6881
Email: shashi.ioannides@emptyhomes.com

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3
After a Successful
Summer - W hat's
Next?

It’s a bit belated but I just wanted to say thank you to everybody who came to the
seminars we ran with IDEA in July. 500 of you from 300 local authorities attended
making them collectively our best-supported event by far. I have read the feedback,
and it was great to see that almost everybody found them very useful and, dare I say
it, enjoyable. The task for us now is to respond to the requests for more. Looking at
what you said three themes seem to emerge

• A more detailed look at EDMOs

• More practical examples and case studies

• How to deal with individual empty properties rather than strategic approaches

Over the next year we intend to address these with more conferences and seminars.
My feeling is that it may be a bit soon to revisit EDMOs. Despite the claims from
Amber Valley and Manchester over who was going to be first to do an EDMO;
nobody has done one yet. Personally I’m quite happy for that situation to continue,
but I suspect it won’t for long. When there is more to say I promise we will return to
EDMOs and offer some seminars and training sessions.

For more than a decade the Empty Homes Agency has been advocating that every
local authority should have an empty property strategy. We still think you should. But
I know from bitter experience having a good strategy and achieving results are not
the same thing. Many of you seem to agree. Several comments from you asked for
less strategic and more practical advice. One empty property officer put it like this “
We have less than a 100 empty homes, it’s not worth putting resources into a
strategy what we need is advice on tackling the worst eyesores.” I have a lot of
sympathy with that, and we have put together what I hope is an answer. On
December 5th we will be running a conference in London called “From Eyesores to
Assets” It’s going to be very practical with lots of case studies from urban and rural
areas, from North and South. And we have got a great line up of speakers four of the
country’s best empty property practioners, a big name architect and a high profile

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speaker from the heritage business. More details will follow, but in the meantime
please pencil the date in your diary.

If you haven’t already can I urge you to respond to the government’s consultation on
housing delivery and planning reward grant. You can see our response on our
website. I think this is really important for us. It must surely be right that if local
authorities are to be rewarded for facilitating new build housing, they should also be
rewarded for bringing empty homes back into use. We argue they should be
rewarded more. But the consultation document makes no mention of empty homes,
and this is a worry. Has the government they lost its nerve? Do they consider empty
homes as “dealt with” after the introduction of EDMOs. I don’t know, but I do know
that if we don’t say anything this important opportunity to fund empty property work
will be lost, and with it the incentive within local authorities to resource this area of
work will be diminished.

For further information please contact

David Ireland
Policy Advisor
Empty Homes Agency
Tel: 020 7963 6884
Email: david.ireland@emptyhomes.com

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E M P T Y H O M E S A G E N C Y

4
Gr eater power for
London as
G ove r n m e n t h a n d s
M a y o r ke y p o w e r s

In July this year, the Department for Communities and Local Government
(DCLG) handed key new powers to the Greater London Authority in a new
deal for the capital. The transfer of these powers from central government to a
regional level confirms the Government’s view that the first six years of the
GLA have been a success.

The new powers cover seven areas. Most importantly for empty property
work, the Mayor will now take a lead role in London’s housing, has
strengthened planning powers and is charged with drawing up a climate
change strategy.

The Mayor will publish a ‘Statement of Intent’ regarding housing this autumn.
He will also set out on how he intends to consult with stakeholders on a new
London Housing Strategy and Strategic Housing Investment Plan, both of
which are to be published in the summer of 2007. These will set out priorities
and actions to meet the capital’s housing needs in line with the London Plan
2004, which will also undergo it’s first major review this autumn. One of the
key issues in the London plan is the housing shortage in London.

Under the new power arrangements, control of the £850 million Housing
Corporation London budget has also passed to the Mayor and earlier this
week the Mayor indicated that he will direct spending towards social housing
for families. Also announced this week were the Mayor’s plans to increase
London’s overall house building by a third – a new total of 30,650 new homes
a year for London will be implemented shortly. Livingstone said that boroughs

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E M P T Y H O M E S A G E N C Y

that resist increasing their building targets will serve to reinforce his demands
for greater powers to intervene in the London housing market.

The potential contribution that long-term vacant properties have towards

achieving housing supply targets necessary to meet existing and projected
housing need is identified in the London Plan 2004. To meet the overall target
for long-term empty homes, the projected trajectory between 2005 levels and
April 2016 is based on an ongoing downward trend from 36,200 properties to
25,000, effectively seeing the return to use of 11,200 long-term empty
properties. Boroughs are expected set their Empty Property Strategies and
individual targets on an annual basis. Monitoring of progress on empty homes
targets at the borough level is included in the GLA’s general monitoring of
overall housing provision targets.

In the first big review of the London Plan, the Mayor will require new
developments to connect to smaller, decentralised power plants that can pipe
heat and power to homes. Buildings will be required to include the
infrastructure for connection to such plants, and large developments could
even require new plants. Currently, new developments must achieve ten per
cent of their energy needs from on-site renewable sources to reduce carbon
emissions. That requirement will rise to 20%.

In addition, the review will double the amount of energy the developments
must generate from on-site renewable energy sources, such as wind turbines,
solar power or ground-source heat pumps. The plan will also propose the first
statutory carbon emissions reduction targets for London, aiming at a 20% cut
by 2015 and 60% by 2050.

The amendments, which will be unveiled for consultation with the London
assembly before going to wider public consultation, will not be implemented
for more than two years.

Currently the Mayor’s planning powers do not allow for targets to tackle the
environmental performance of existing buildings, though this may be set to
change. Since existing housing contributes 25-30% of annual UK emissions
(buildings of all types contribute about 50%), the environmental performance
of existing London buildings must be addressed if the city is to achieve
sustainable status.

For further information about these issues & the review of the London Plan
visit www.london.gov.uk

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5
RSL update – Private Sector
Leasing Scheme in Amber
Valley

I'd like to tell you about what we are getting off the ground here in Amber
Valley.

We are working on a pilot lease scheme that has been designed specifically
with the EDMO in mind.

We are working with two housing associations - Home and Amber Valley
Housing Ltd who are offering leases on a 7, 10 or 15yr basis. They will take a
look at any property, ranging from those ready to let to those that need
extensive work. The properties are to be brought up to decent homes
standard and subsequently let and managed by the HAs. By offering a variety
of lengths of lease and letting at market rent the RSLs can negotiate with the
owner a package that best meets their needs. Of course not all owners are
happy with the return and the higher specifications required for the property
and many have dropped out along the way.

It has taken almost a year to get owners to understand just how this will be of
benefit in terms of relieving themselves of all responsibility in return for a no-
hassle guaranteed income - albeit at a lower monthly rate than if let
themsleves or through an agent, but the appcreciation of the asset will exceed
other private lets. With a finacial appraisal tool, a standard lease and a
systematic approach in place we are just about ready to sign up the first
owners to the scheme.

At times it felt like this was not going to be successful but it seems more
owners are interested in having an appraisal at the very least and I'm
confident that we can make it work. For example, one property requires
around £20,000 to bring it up to standard and the RSL can still offer the owner
a return over a 15yr lease. At last we have a way of tackling properties that
enables owners to retain ownership and does not require public subsidy, as of
course the RSLs eventually recover their costs. However, the local authority is
offering a contribution of £2,000 for each of the first five properites that are
signed up to the scheme in recognition of the additional administration the
RSLs have undertaken to make the scheme work & this subsidy will be
passed on to the owner in the form of a slight increase in the monthly rent
paid.

With a few successful lets under our belt this can then be rolled out to the
EDMO where we intend to be able to offer a financial appraisal the the RPT at
the interim EDMO stage rather than the final to prove that we can make the

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6
EDMO work & of course this will have been offered to the owner to take up on
a voluntary basis beforehand.

I feel quite proud that as a small, borough council we have been able to
prompt action amongst the wider region, having now been asked to write a
boroughwide EDMO procedure & our RSLs being approached by much larger
city councils in the East Midlands to manage their EDMOs.

For further information please contact

Sue Gardiner
Empty Property Officer
Amber Valley
Email: sue.gardiner@ambervalley.gov.uk

WORDS…and some thoughts

on how they are used from
an Empty property officer

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I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was
rdanieg.
E M P T Y H O M E S A G E N C Y

Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t

mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny
iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the
rghit pclae.

The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a
porbelm.

Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by
istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Amzanig.

That was just for fun and not – to my knowledge – an extract from The Guardian; but
there is a serious point. Those familiar with some of the different psychometric
testing systems will be aware that many individual words have a qualitative value
quite apart from their definitive meaning.

So, what is in a word?

Well, a lot more than just a selection of alphabetic letters. Words not only convey a
literal meaning but also an emotional feeling. The choice of the actual words that we
use gives a flavour to the message: swap key words for synonyms and the whole
feeling can be altered; switch from personal to impersonal or from active to passive
language and the whole sense of what the writer or speaker is trying to convey can
be dramatically changed.

With a topic as sensitive as Empty Homes, the letters that we write are very often the
first stage of contact that a council may have with the owners of empty properties.
How we convey our message can be crucial to establishing a meaningful dialogue
and hopefully a productive relationship, leading to a successful conclusion.

The language that we use should be appropriate to the stage of the process, which
runs the whole gamut of the spectrum from encouragement and support, through
cajoling and pushing to pressuring and enforcing.

Care taken in choosing the right words and phrases can make an enormous
difference as to how the recipient reacts and then responds to our initial letters.

Question: How often does one stop to actually read a letter that has just been
written, before it is sent? I do not mean check the letter, but read it through the eyes
of the intended recipient. Does the received message reflect the intention of the
transmitted message ?

The time invested in preparing carefully thought out standard letters will pay
dividends and by choosing words with the appropriate ‘feel’ one can have a stock of
‘pick and mix’ sentences and phrases that can be cut and pasted into letters.

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E M P T Y H O M E S A G E N C Y

So how do we apply such high-minded principles to the harsh world of day to day
reality?

 Set the scene

De-personalise by explaining that council has resolved to play its full part in the
National campaign to address the issue of Empty Homes.

Prepare an explanatory leaflet and enclose a copy. It saves having to re-hash the
Empty

Homes mantra in every letter and makes it less likely that the recipient will feel
individually victimised.

Our approach is to make a big point of stressing that we are looking to work in
partnership with owners and we set out to establish a relationship of trust.

 Surprise them

We say that we write to inform the owners of the availability of a free service,
offering advice, technical support and the possibility of grant funding.

 Caring

We explicitly acknowledge that there may be issues and concerns that are
making it difficult for the owner to deal with their empty home – issues with which
we may well be able to help.
Each letter in the early stages (the “encouragement and persuasion” modes)
closes with offers of help and advice.

 Sharing

We start from the premise that problem is a ‘given’ and stress that we want to
work with the owner to resolve this problem using an agreed timetable of defined
actions.

We have borrowed a trick from the medical profession used by family GPs: that
of the inclusive concept of “we” when talking about what you will be doing.

This is an appropriate use (or at least a legitimate abuse) of language – and

expressions such as “…..we do not want to lose control of this process….” give
more of a feeling of pulling (together) rather than pushing (you around).

There is a genuine sharing of responsibility, with the Empty Homes Officer having
firstly to get the owner to agree the key actions and timescales and then,
secondly, to monitor progress (or lack of it) and chase up as required.

 Scaring

For those recalcitrant individuals who either fail to respond or who decline to join
in – whether they be the Certainly Indecisive, the Habitual Procrastinators or

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simply the Non-Co-operators in the Community - clearly sterner measures are

7
demanded.

When we find that we are not making satisfactory progress, we spell out clearly
what may lie ahead for that owner if they were to choose the path of darkness ;
and we then reiterate our offers of help and advice to guide them along a brighter
route to a happier conclusion and to assist them in achieving their chosen
outcome.

Enforcement is an essential part of the process and we all have to end up there
from time to time, but we do not need to start off with the mindset that it is the
only outcome we can envisage – lest this subliminal message leaks through into
our initial letters, via our choice of words.

There is time enough in the later stages to ‘get heavy’ – that adage “jaw-jaw not
war-war” can yield some surprising results – and ultimately save Council Tax
payers a lot of money.

Footnote : I asked my wife to proof-read this article for me and she summed it all up
in just four words ; “from tactful to forceful.”
Now that is good use of words.

Richard Cook

Empty Homes Officer at Arun District Council

E ve n t s

National Week Of Action - Dates: 23rd – 27th October 2006

For more information click on the link below:

http://www.emptyhomes.com/news/event/nwoa.html

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Idea Events

For more information please click on the link below:

http://www.idea-knowledge.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?wax=quik_mn_0_0&pageId=1700383

* * * * * * * * * * * * *
For more info please look at our website:
http://www.emptyhomes.com/eventspages/events.htm

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