Glasgow City Council has announced that its Empty Homes Strategy has supported more than 1700 homes being brought back into productive use.
Since the strategy was introduced in April 2019, 1,710 homes that were left lying empty for more than six months have been brought back into use, with 2,641 homes still left empty in the city. Over the course of the 2023-28 Local Housing Strategy, the City Council has set a target of re-occupying 1800 of those.
There are a number of goals set out in the Empty Homes Strategy, including:
- Increasing the availability of housing stock to meet the demand within the city
- Offering home-owners information and advice to bring properties back into use
- Identifying opportunities for suitable homes for particular groups
- Tackling environmental and neighbourhood blight
- Safeguarding the interest of tenement flat owners to support repair work
Convenor for Housing at Glasgow City Council, Cllr Kenny McLean, said:
“Glasgow’s Empty Homes Strategy has been an outstanding success, bringing over 1700 homes back to life for people and families, and playing an important role in increasing the housing supply in the city. There is enormous demand for homes in Glasgow, and programmes such as this help increase the housing supply to meet some of that need.”
Economically, bringing additional homes into use will allow the council to save further money as it costs between £6,000 and £25,000 to renovate a property that has been empty in the long-term, as opposed to the average cost of £200,000 to deliver a completely new property.
If you want to find out more about the ongoing housing issues within the public sector, sign up to watch PSE’s 2024 Public Sector Homes and Homelessness online conference on the 25th July.
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