5,000 fewer empty homes in Greater Manchester

More than 5,000 empty homes have been brought back into use in Greater Manchester in the past two years, according to the latest Government figures.

Local councils have also received £8.6 million from the New Homes Bonus scheme to help tackle the issue, Communities Minister Don Foster has revealed.

Manchester has seen the second highest reduction of empty homes in the country after Birmingham, with 2,118 homes back in use. Salford has seen the fifth highest reduction, with 1,582 fewer empty homes.

Across Greater Manchester, 5,441 empty homes are now back in use, including 404 in Tameside, 377 in Bolton, 300 in Wigan, 257 in Trafford and 223 in Rochdale.

Bringing thousands of empty homes into use has unlocked over £63 million of additional funding across the country that is directly benefiting local communities through the scheme, said the Minister.

In a further move towards greater Government transparency, the figures showed which councils have made the biggest reduction in empty homes and the New Homes Bonus that they will have received for doing so.

In total, local authorities have brought nearly 38,000 long-term empty homes back into use over the past two years - helping to tackle the housing shortage and providing a roof over the heads of hard working families across the country.

On the release of the figures, Don Foster said: “This information, shown in this way for the first time, lets people see how their councils are embracing the New Homes Bonus by examining their empty housing stock and turning it back into use.

“I’m delighted we’ve had such a positive start and encourage all councils to work hard in transforming empty properties, which drag down neighbourhoods, and instead turn them into homes fit for families.

“By making councils accountable to their residents, not to Whitehall, we are ensuring local taxpayers have the ability to check that money is being spent efficiently and decisions taken for the benefit of the communities they serve.”

The Government’s powerful and innovative New Homes Bonus scheme rewards councils who increase their housing stock, either by building new homes or converting empty properties back into use, by match funding the additional council tax raised, with an additional amount for affordable homes, for the following six years.

This has meant that communities are seeing the benefits of growth for the first time – in stark contrast to the previous, top-down system of regional housing targets which ministers argue pitted neighbourhoods against developers.