More than 800 long term empty properties have been brought back into use in the Folkestone and Hythe district thanks to Kent's No Use Empty (NUE) run by KCC with Folkestone & Hythe District Council.
National Empty Homes Week (28 Feb - 6 Mar 2022) aims to highlight the work of schemes such as Kent's No Use Empty (NUE) and encourages property owners to take part and make use of available funding.
F&HDC was one of the founding partners and in 2014 introduced top up loans to help tackle some of the larger empty properties that needed extra financial support.
The loans are administered by the NUE team at KCC on a recyclable basis. The total loan investment stands at £12m (£10m from NUE and £2m for the district) with 833 properties given new life.
Councillor David Godfrey, F&HDC Cabinet member for Housing and Special Projects said: "I am delighted that our partnership with No Use Empty continues to be a success."
"It is exciting to see these properties brought back into use and to see the impact the new homes have on local communities."
Will Brown, Director of Browns Construction, has a track record of restoring long term empty properties using the NUE scheme and is currently working on a property that has been a challenge for a considerable time, with the previous owner having been served a Section 215 Notice. Now thanks to NUE and a change in ownership plans are in place to turn the property into five new homes. He said "Browns Construction is on a mission to regenerate every derelict property in its home town of Folkestone"
"NUE are supporting this and together we are breathing new life into empty properties which are having a positive and uplifting effect on our local community."
Derek Murphy, KCC Cabinet Member for Economic Development stated "In these challenging times initiatives such as No Use Empty are becoming increasingly important. I have visited several projects with the NUE team and am astonished by the diversity of projects being tackled. National Empty Homes Week allows us to promote all the good work across the county."
"I am also pleased to announce that in addition to the funds NUE already administers, KCC has secured a further £2.5m from the Growing Places Funds (GPF) to pump into the NUE scheme to make available a short term secured loans to bring even more empty properties back into use."
For further information about the Kent scheme go to www.no-use-empty.org.uk/
Date published: 4 March 2022