Landlord Forum Chairs Welcome John Wooderson Head of Service (Urban Renewal & Regulatory Services)

Empty Properties Neil Smith

Introduction Why are empty properties a priority? Fall into disrepair and magnet for ASB Loss of valuable housing resource Blight local communities Undermine regeneration work Direct and indirect costs to all

Salford’s empty property challenge Baseline figures as of September ,125 properties citywide – 5,732 empty properties (5.3% of the stock) All housing markets have a number of empty properties A range between 2.5% and 3% would be consider healthy

Salford’s response The Empty Property Team set up April 2011 To increase the supply of housing Reduce nuisance to local communities Additional income generation CT and NHB (Fifth highest reduction in the country between April 2011 and April 2015) Work closely with owners/landlords and other partners

Progress so far Number of Empty PropertiesDate 5372Baseline Sept/Oct March March March March March 2015

Financial Assistance 2012/15 HCA Funding 140 Long term empty properties brought back into use £2m of external funding DCLG funding 150 Long term empty properties brought back into use £1.5m of external funding Over £13m private investment leverage into Salford

Going forward. Retain our strategic approach focusing on:- properties having the greatest negative impact on their communities early intervention to prevent short term empties becoming long term empties. clusters of empty properties to prevent them from leading to wider decline in local areas. seeking to work with owners where possible to support them in bringing properties back into sustainable use making full and appropriate use of available enforcement powers where owners will not engage with the team applying best practice and develop innovative solutions work in partnership with all willing stakeholders securing further financial assistance for owners

Contacting the Empty Property Team. The team actively seeks to engage with and make itself accessible to a wide range of stakeholders. The team has a dedicated phone line – The team has a dedicated address – The team has a dedicated pages on the Council’s website including links to allow the reporting of empty properties.

Landlord Licensing & Accreditation Sarah Hughes

Current Schemes Langworthy, Weaste and Seedley Eccles and Barton Mandatory HMO Charlestown and Lower Kersal scheme ends 01/01/16

Broughton area Commences – 21 January 2016 Around 929 identified properties Re-designated on grounds of Low Housing demand Progress made but still work to be done

Accreditation - Incentive Current membership members with 1391 Carbon Monoxide detector installed by Helping Hands Accredited properties First come, first served