Empty Homes

Empty Homes

Social housing accounts for just 10% of the estimated 740,000 empty homes in England. The vast majority of empty homes are privately owned (89%) and are often previously rented homes that are now in need of repair or in areas of low demand or poorly designed accommodation.  

We welcome the renewed attention that empty homes are being given as making the best use of existing homes will contribute to meeting the housing needs of the country.  The focus of both the government funding and the Channel 4 coverage is concentrated around renovation.  To prevent homes from falling into disrepair we have carried out works to more than 21,000 Affinity Sutton homes over the last 6 years or so, bringing homes up to the “Decent Home” standard.  We have invested over £100m in Decent Homes upgrade work including roofs, kitchens, heating, and electrics.  We also invest heavily in improving the energy efficiency of our homes and last year spent £1.2million on retro-fitting properties with energy saving works from wall insulation and thermostatic radiators to solar panels and condensing boilers. However there are some properties within our portfolio that will be very difficult bring up to an acceptable level of energy efficiency. There was no government subsidy available so this has been funded from our own finances.

We take pride in providing high quality affordable accommodation and believe that bringing empty homes into use is important.  However, this should not be done at the expense of proper renovation and redevelopment works where these are required. For example, large concentrations of bedsits with shared facilities would not be considered desirable today regardless of their decorative state.  Other homes may be suffering from significant design and structural defects making it simply not cost effective to refurbish them.  In some instances even redevelopment is simply not an effective option (for example, areas of very low demand) so we will look to make the best possible future use of the site.

It is also important to acknowledge that whilst bringing empty homes back into use is a positive step, it does not negate the need build new homes; even if all empty homes in England were returned to use this would not meet current or future levels of housing need.  

We want to provide more affordable housing whilst continuing our investment in our current stock and associated community services.  We are in the country’s top two developing associations (Inside Housing, July 2011) and we have a strong track record in developing new homes which we intend to maintain.