We've brought 80 homes a year back to life
Monday, 28 February 2022
During this week’s Empty Homes Week (28 February to 6 March), we are making the public aware of the steps it can take to bring empty homes back into use.
In the past 10 years, we've brought 816 long term empty homes back into use – around 80 every year. A home can become empty for any number of reasons including if the owner has passed away with no next of kin, has moved away or is unable to afford renovation costs.
We can help owners of empty homes bring their properties back into use, offering financial assistance and advice to help renovations. On some occasions, we will offer to refurbish and rent out the property on behalf of the owner using our Let’s Rent scheme.
Where there is no possibility of bringing a property back into use through negotiation, some enforcement action may be necessary.
If it takes on a home, we will improve the insulation of the property and install low energy lighting and modern controllable heating and hot water systems, all helping to future proof homes and make them more energy-efficient.
Councillor Eugene Ghent, our Executive Member for Housing and Assets, said:
Empty homes can negatively impact communities and can attract anti-social behaviour, vandalism and other criminal activity. They can also affect the value of nearby homes and make them more difficult to sell. We are committed to revitalising empty properties across Central Bedfordshire and turning them into safe, warm homes again. I’d encourage anyone who knows of an empty home to tell us so we can investigate its potential and try and work with the owner to bring it back to life. If you are the owner of an empty home, please get in touch as we may be able to support the refurbishment of the property.
Report an empty home and find out more about the support we offer.
Below you can see some great before / after pictures of properties we've brought back to use
Empty homes example 1
Empty homes example 2
Empty homes example 3
Empty homes example 4