Mayor of London Boris Johnson has pledged to plough a whopping £22 million into renovating more than 1,300 derelict or empty homes in London and turn them into family houses…
Britain has had a shortage of UK property for decades and to get house price inflation under control, at least 240,000 new homes were needed each year.
However, the housing crisis has now turned critical and instead of 240,000 being built, it has been predicted that there will only be 80,000. As construction has fallen off as a result of the credit crunch, the number of new homes continues to dwindle further.
Now Boris has stepped in with a pledge to try to combat the problem. At the end of last year, Halifax compiled a report using data from the Department for Communities & Local Government and its own database, and discovered that there are more than a quarter of a million empty properties in the UK.
With the balance of supply and demand so out of kilter, it seems obvious that here is one solution to help ease the problem – bring those empty homes back into use.
This time last year, Boris promised to build 50,000 more affordable homes by 2011 and renovate 84,205 empty properties to help low-income Londoners off waiting lists.
Fast forward to this year and his new pledge would mean that he is on ‘course to meet his manifesto pledge to invest a total of £60 million new funding to bring over 3,400 empty homes back into use by 2011.’
Once the homes have been renovated under the programme, many of them will be turned into much needed affordable family homes.
Boris’ ambitious aim is to reduce the proportion of long-term empty homes in the capital to just one per cent.
He said, “In the last housing market downturn of the 1990’s, the number of empty homes soared.
“Leaving homes empty when so many people are seeking housing is unacceptable and abandoned buildings can blight neighbourhoods, attracting vandalism and creating local eyesores.
“Today’s package delivers an unprecedented level of funding to tackle the capital’s empty homes, more than tripling the previous budget.
“Working with London’s boroughs, this investment will help to significantly improve London’s housing stock,” he added.
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