People who own empty homes will be able to apply for a grant of up to £25,000 as part of a new scheme announced by the Welsh Government. The new £50m scheme to bring more empty homes back to life has been announced by Climate Change Minister Julie James.
Social landlords, local authorities and community housing groups will also be able to access the funding. It is estimated there are up to 2,000 long-term empty properties that could be brought back into use in Wales.
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Now the National Empty Homes Grant scheme, that will run over the next two years, has been developed to build on the success of previous previous initiatives like the Valleys Taskforce Empty Homes Grant.
As part of the plan, a grant of up to £25,000 will be available for home owners or prospective home owners to remove significant hazards from their properties to make them safe to live in and to improve their energy efficiency.
The scheme will run alongside with other Welsh Government schemes like Leasing Scheme Wales which is designed to improve access to longer term affordable housing in the private rental sector.
As part of that private landlords will be asked to consider renting out their properties through their local council in a bid to tackle homelessness.
Under the arrangement, the council will lease properties from private sector landlords and sub-let the properties to those it has a duty to protect from homelessness. The scheme is also being used as a way to improve housing stock and how it is used in the area, acting as an intervention to tackle empty properties.
Speaking about the latest scheme, Ms James said: “The funding announced today will be used to reduce the number of empty properties and, therefore, increase housing supply. “
In order to qualify for the grant, the property must have been registered as empty with the local authority for a minimum of 12 months prior to commencement of the works.
Once the works have been completed, the successful applicant must then live in that property as their main and only residence for a minimum of five years.
Aside from owner occupiers, Registered Social Landlords, local authorities and community housing groups will also be able to access the funding for empty properties they are acquiring to bring back into use as affordable housing.
The scheme has been developed with the local authorities and will be administered by Rhondda Cynon Taff Council on behalf of the Welsh Government.
Each participating local authority will have an allocation each year and will be responsible for undertaking surveys of the properties to identify and recommend the qualifying works for grant funding.
A list of the participating local authorities can be found here: More local authorities will be added to the list once ready to accept applications.
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