HCA awards £36m to tackle empty homes
More than 2,000 empty homes in the region will be brought back into use by local authorities using funding from the Homes & Communities Agency.
The Clusters of Empty Homes fund was open to Local Authorities and HCA approved organisations which could bring a minimum of 100 homes back into use in wards where more than 10% of homes are empty, each cluster representing more than 25 empty homes.
In addition, bidders had to demonstrate a commitment to providing 100% match funding to the HCA grants.
Bids closed in March and a shortlist of successful bidders were invited to submit more detailed bids.
The successful bidders were named on Tuesday and are as follows:
- Allerdale Council awarded £580,296, for 125 homes
- Barrow-in-Furness Council, £3.4m for 229 homes
- Blackburn with Darwen Council, £9.5m, for 457 homes
- Blackpool Council, £1.6m, for 100 homes
- Greater Manchester Combined Authority, £3.7m, for 356 homes
- Lancaster City Council, £1.9m, for 114 homes
- Liverpool City Region, on behalf of Restore Consortium, £16.8m, for 711 homes
Liverpool City Council will use £13m of the allocation in Anfield to finish work next to the football stadium that ceased at the time of the closure of the Housing Market Renewal Initiative.
The council plans to work with Arena Housing Association to refurbish properties in the area within the boundary of Back Rockfield Road, Walton Breck Road, Sleepers Hill and Saker Street.
A number of options for the area, to be renamed Anfield Village, are being explored, including creating larger houses for families by knocking two into one and carrying out selective demolition to create space for gardens in the remaining properties.
