Five of the projects outlined above were able to benefit from the Government’s ‘Empty Homes Community Grant Programme from 2012 – 2015.  This enabled all five projects to scale up their work and bring many more properties back into use as social, affordable housing.

Since then, these projects have had to slow down their work, getting by with piecemeal funding from Local Authorities (Right to Buy Replacement Grant Fund, for projects in areas where the local authority retains housing stock, that is still being sold under right to buy), from the MLUHC CHF (Community Housing Fund) revenue pre-development funding administered by the Community Homes Led Partnership, from Foundations and Trusts, and from raising investment through Community Share offers.

For the majority of the costs of this work, Community Housing Organisations use secured debt finance from the banks.  Unfortunately, the last two years has seen considerable rises in the Bank of England base rate, which has impacted dramatically on these projects’ costs.  Rental income has barley risen at all in this sector, with LHA (Local Housing Allowance) having been frozen from 2020 to 2024.  There has also been very high inflationary pressure in the costs of construction, both in terms of labour and of materials.

What we need

1. Accessible, dedicated, central Government capital funding, similar to the Empty Homes Community Grant Fund or the more recent Local Authority Housing Fund.  This could be drawn down by Community Housing Projects to part finance the purchase and renovation of properties.
2. Access via local authorities to low interest loans through the Public Works Loans Board (PWLB) – this has already been shown to work in Leeds and Hull.
3. Access to further revenue pre-development funding from any new MHCLG Community Housing Fund.