The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Empty homes worth £4.3bn
Housing: Owners urged to bring properties back on to market
Scotland’s 27,000 empty homes could be worth more than £4.3billion, the body working to bring them back into use has revealed.
The Scottish Empty Homes Par tnership (SEHP) said these properties had an average sale price of £160,000 once they are no longer vacant.
It is now urging the owners of the 27,000 homes that are long-termempty to do more to ensure they can be used again.
The SEHP, which is run by the housing and homeless charity Shelter Scotland, has helped bring 1,200 homes, with a potential of almost £200million, back into use.
But with 150,000 families and individuals on housing waiting lists, it said more needed to be done.
The SEHP revealed the value of the country’s empty homes ahead of the Scottish Empty Homes Conference in Edinburgh, which will hear fromTVarchitect George Clarke, who is best known for his work on the Channel 4 programmes The Home Show, The Restoration Man and George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces.
He argued that refurbishing empty homes was needed to help tackle the housing crisis and also made sense in “tough economic times”. He said: “With thousands of empty homes across Scotland, it’s a disgrace that so many families are going without something as fundamental as a home of their own.
“I totally support the building of newhomes and we should be building tens of thousands of them, but weneed to look at other options too.
“It’s cheaper and quicker to refurbish empty homes than to build from scratch. It can be kinder to communities and the environment – and it makes sense in these tough economic times.”
Graeme Brown, director of Shelter Scotland, said: “Bringing Scotland’s empty homes back into use represents great value for money but it also provides homes to families and individuals who would otherwise struggle to afford ahomeof their own, or would be forced into expensive private rents.
“While we acknowledge that empty homes alone cannot solve Scotland’s housing crisis, they can be part of the solution to finding permanent and affordable homes to the 150,000 families and individuals across the country on waiting lists.”
Housing minister Margaret Burgess said: “Making sure everyone has access to an affordable home is at heart of the Scottish Government’s priorities.”
“It’s cheaper and quicker to refurbish empty homes”