October

2008
THE EMPTY HOMES AGENCY
Monthly News Bulletin

Empty Homes Agency, Downstream Building, 1 London Bridge, London, SE1 9BG
Tel: 020 7022 1870 Email: shashi.ioannides@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 Empty Homes Agency National Conference – 27th November
2008
3 Empty Homes to Green Homes
4 Crisis Open Christmas – Building Search
5 Other News
6 Events
E M P T Y H O M E S A G E N C Y

1
A Word…
David Ireland, Chief Executive

For the second time this year we have a new housing minister. Margaret Beckett has
been brought in from the backbenches to lend more experience to and perhaps a
battling edge to the government. We hope to welcome her at our conference on 27 th
November.

I’m sorry to see Caroline Flint go, she impressed me. She understood that housing
wasn’t just targets on spreadsheet but about how people live and feel. And although it
was too early to see the results we had very fruitful discussions with her about
encouraging action in areas where councils were not responding to their empty homes
problem. Unfortunately for her, she was brought in to pursue the housing policies
drawn up in times of housing boom at just the time the housing market fell over a cliff.
The housing growth targets and ecotowns policies she pursued were the
government’s response to the 2005 Kate Barker review; the conclusions of which,
now, look like something from another age. Can you believe that the idea was to
expand housebuilding so that prices would drop to a more affordable level?
Housebuilders were never likely to be able to build 3 million extra homes anyway, and
I suspect Margaret Beckett’s job will be to give the policies the quietest and most
dignified burial she can.

If I’m right, it rather begs the question- if government policy is not about growth, what
will it be about? A look at the new Homes and Communities Agency might, I hope,
give a clue. When the regional Directors were announced last month From David
Lunts in London, David Curtis in Yorkshire to Deboranh McLaughlin in the North West
the vast majority were from regeneration backgrounds. Perhaps one good thing that
might come from the shambles the housing market is in is a return to proper bricks
and mortar regeneration.

Earlier this year I had the privilege of visiting two of the best bricks and mortar
regeneration schemes: Cresswell in Derbyshire and Anfield in Liverpool. The closure
of the local colliery in Derbyshire in 1991 precipitated a collapse of the local economy.
Within a few years the historic village built to house miner’s families was lying boarded
up and derelict. In different hands it would have been demolished, but through tenacity
and ingenuity led by Meden Valley Making Places the houses have not only been
refurbished, but a new and vibrant community created.

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Anfield has, we believe, the highest concentration of empty homes in the country. A
combination of abandonment and council decants have left a whole district almost
entirely unoccupied. It must rate as one of the most dispiriting places to visit in the
country. Whist the fate for much of the homes is likely to be the bulldozer, there is a
hugely impressive alternative taking shape in one corner of the area. Several roads of
empty homes have been bought up by a developer with a social conscience: the
Affordable Housing Development Company. Refurbishment and remodeling of the
houses started late last year, and in the early summer I visited one of the first houses
to be completed. AHDC had not so much restored the houses as created new homes
that compete directly with the best new-build homes. For the first time in a generation
people are queuing up to move into Anfield.

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

Gary Kirk the Chief Executive of Meden Valley Making Places and Ian Robinson Chief
Executive of Affordable Housing Development Company will be explaining all at our
conference, I urge you to come and join them and see how we really can create the
homes the country needs form empty homes.

David Ireland
Chief Executive
Empty Homes Agency
Tel: 020 7022 1867

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

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

The Empty Homes Agency with the Chartered Institute Of Housing will be holding their annual
National Conference on the 27th November in Central London. The conference agenda will focus on
the importance of bringing empty homes back into use in an ailing housing market

To book your place please email Shashi Ioannides at shashi.ioannides@emptyhomes.com

or call on 020 7022 1870

Places are just £239 or there are some charity priced places available. Please get in contact for
further details.

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

Empty homes to green homes

3

It’s not unusual nowadays to hear about green homes initiatives. When you see the pictures
however they often don’t look much like most people’s idea of a normal house, and that tends
to it a lot of people off the idea altogether. Even when green homes look indistinguishable
from others they’re almost always new build, which is an immediate switch–off for a good
chunk of the market. More importantly perhaps, they don’t have much to say about the vast
majority of the housing stock, which has been around for decades and will be with us for a
long time to come.

So when we heard about a long-empty period house that has not only been re-used for
affordable housing but also refurbished to a high standard of environmental performance and
restored to its former glory we were excited and intrigued.

No. 9 Haystone Place in Plymouth is an early Victorian end-of-terrace house. Having been
vacant for more than 10 years, it was in disrepair when acquired by Warmhomes, a building
partnership that specialises in one-off exemplar projects to demonstrate good practice in
insulation detailing and sustainable design. Warmhomes saw the house as an opportunity to
demonstrate the potential radically to improve the thermal efficiency of a historic building in an
architecturally sensitive way.

Plymouth City Council’s Empty Homes Officer, Thelma Cunningham, offered Warmhomes
bridge funding from the Neighbourhood Regeneration Fund in return for conversion of the

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

house to two two-bedroom flats and five years’ council tenant nomination rights. Architects
were McCaren Design and the contractor A.D. Williams.

Warmhomes’ guiding principle is that reducing energy demand is more practical and efficient
than bolting on technical fixes such as domestic wind turbines to generate clean energy. The
project took a broad view of environmental sustainability, encompassing low-flush lavatories,
PVC-free cables, energy–efficient appliances and fittings, cycle storage, clothes-drying and
selection of materials on the basis of overall environmental impact rather than embodied
energy alone (e.g. wood fibre insulation rather than foamed plastics).

It comes at a price, of course: the capital cost of the green specification over and above the
standard equivalent is estimated at about £20,000. But the larger the market for such work
becomes the cheaper it is likely to get. Plymouth City Council has now adopted some
important elements of the Haystone Place project in its Empty Homes Build Specification.

And the results are impressive. SAP calculations indicate that CO2 emissions from the flat are
around 30 per cent. lower than Building Regulations standards and 65 per cent. less than a
‘normal UK house’. An Energy Performance Rating of B for energy efficiency and
environmental impact should cut energy costs by £225 a year for each flat. The overall
projected annual reduction of 5.1 tonnes CO2 gives a cost of £4 investment per kg CO2 per
annum. The project has been short-listed for the 2008 Sustainable Housing Awards.

Of course, it’s not enough just to improve the building; the residents need to understand how
to live in it so as to realise the benefits, and to want to do so. So, as with all their projects,
Warmhomes will monitor performance for at least a year, using monthly energy and water
readings. The flats are managed by Sarsen Housing Association.

The EHA’s New Tricks with Old Bricks research published earlier this year shows significant
CO2 advantages for refurbishment over new build. But this edge will be steadily eroded (at
least in terms of buildings’ operational emissions) as new homes begin to meet the
Government’s target of zero-carbon by 2016 under the Code for Sustainable Homes. So it’s
all the more important that we see big improvements to the environmental performance of the
existing housing stock. Tight deadlines, straitened resources and the need for swift recovery
of costs mean that works to empty homes are often done to the minimum standard, yet empty
homes offer a rare opportunity for comprehensive green refurbishment. How we get there will
be one of the questions explored at the EHA National Conference 2008 on 27th November.

Henry Oliver
Policy Advisor
Empty Homes Agency
Tel: 020 7022 1869
Email: henry.oliver@emptyhomes.com

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

4
Crisis Open Christmas – Buildings
Search

What do Crisis do at Christmas?

Every Christmas Crisis opens centres across London to provide food, companionship and vital services
and for up to 2000 homeless and vulnerably housed people. These centres are lifelines for many over
the Christmas period and we are now searching for buildings to house this years centres.

The Crisis Open Christmas has been running since 1972, and in that time it has provided support and
help to over 24,000 homeless people in the capital. Far from the popular image of a soup kitchen, a
Crisis Open Christmas centres is a place of comfort and inspiration where homeless people can access
over 20 services and link in to ongoing local services.

In a Crisis Open Christmas centre a ‘guest’ can:

• Eat three nutricious meals each day

• Visit a doctor, chiropodist and Optician
• Have a dental check up – and treatment if necessary
• Get professional advice on housing, benefits and legal matters
• Enjoy a full and varied programme of entertainments and activities
• Visit our internet café
• Attend our Progression Fair to find out about learning and work opportunities
• Meet new people find companionship
• Be in a safe space over Christmas

So what do we want you to do?

We need your help to find buildings in inner London for Christmas 2008. To help us with this crucial
task enter the Crisis Postcode Lottery now!

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Go to www.crisis.org.uk/postcodelottery
2. Choose an area to search for buildings from the map (over the page)
3. Register for the Postcode Lottery forum at http://intranet.crisis.org.uk/coc_forum
4. Once you have completed your search, log onto the forum and upload information including the
address and photographs as well as information regarding the security firm or estate agent
managing the building.
5. Check back to the forum for search tips and prizes!

Here is some more information about what to look for:

Any large building can potentially be a Crisis Christmas Centre. In the past we have successfully
utilised city offices, schools, banks and even the Millennium Dome to accommodate homeless people at

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Christmas. Over the past few years we have moved away from large centers accommodating over 1000
to smaller more localised centres for around 200 people.

The buildings we use are often between lets, up for redevelopment or refurbishment, or simply not in
use over the Christmas period. Our ideal building would fit all or some of the following criteria:

• Between 30,000 – 60,000 sq ft

• Have large areas for communal use
• Kitchens or areas that can be temporarily converted into kitchens
• External space for parking
• Toilet and washing facilities or space and drainage for them to be installed
• Close to public transport links
• We are only looking for entire empty buildings, not vacant floors in buildings with other occupants

Here is a visual guide to suitable buildings:

Previous supporters

The following companies and organisations have donated buildings for our use at Christmas in past
years:

Ballymore
BBC
British Land
Callington Estates
English Partnerships
Fidelity
GE Property Services

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Land Securities
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London Development Agency
Prudential
Southwark Council
Tate & Lyle
Wellcome Trust
Westminster City Council

For further information please contact Operations Manager, Mike Thomas:

michael.thomas@crisis.org.uk / 020 7426 3821

Other News

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Call for tax rise on empty homes - 14th October 2008

Huddersfield Examiner - Huddersfield,UK
While some of these are second homes, half have been unoccupied for over a year and one quarter for more than
two years. On Thursday, Calderdale Council’s ...

And now (believe it or not) the GOOD NEWS - from the man who said ... - 12th October 2008
Daily Mail - UK
That is why the Government must get involved now in encouraging housing associations and councils to acquire
land or empty property to keep up the supply of ...

Opening time? - 11th October 2008

Huddersfield Examiner - Huddersfield,UK
... has seen numerous false starts and broken promises and many local traders and residents have branded the
empty property an embarrassment and an eyesore. ...

Concern over empty homes - 10th October 2008

Hucknall Today - Hucknall,UK
By Denis Robinson CONCERN about a high number of empty houses in Newstead was raised at a meeting of the
parish council. Coun Philip Burnham said he could ...
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

For more on latest Empty Homes Agency Press Releases and Other Empty Property
News please visit:

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http://www.emptyhomes.com/latestnews/latest_news.html
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Events

Event: National Week Of Action: National Empty Homes Conference

Date 27th November 2008

The Empty Homes Agency will be holding their annual National Conference on the 27th November in
Central London. The conference agenda will focus on the importance of bringing empty homes back
into use in an ailing housing market

To book your place please email Shashi Ioannides at shashi.ioannides@emptyhomes.com

or call on 020 7022 1870

For more info please look at our website: http://www.emptyhomes.com/whatwedo/events.html

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