Empty homes revamped to ease shortage
Reporter: Richard Hooton
Date published: 06 November 2008
HOUSING chiefs are bringing empty properties in Oldham back into use to help meet a housing shortage.
Four empty properties in Broadway Street, Hathershaw, are the latest to be revamped to be used again as homes.
Joint funding from the New Deal for Communities Programme (NDC), Housing Market Renewal (HMR) and Oldham Council’s capital programme is paying for the work.
The programme includes complete refurbishment to decent homes standard, current gas and electrical safety certificates, full timber and damp proof course guarantee and a Home Information pack.
The properties in the area were originally identified for demolition but following public consultation residents asked for them to be considered for refurbishment instead.
Consequently, properties along Broadway Street have undergone external facelifts that includes rebuilding boundary walls, new drainpipes and cleaning brickwork.
It coincides with a group of Derker residents who are currently fighting through the High Court to save their homes from demolition — and have called for them to be refurbished. They have asked one of the country’s senior judges, Mr Justice Andrew Collins, to quash a Compulsory Purchase Order against their houses —which is part of Oldham HMR’s scheme to renovate and rebuild properties to tackle problems of housing markets failure and abandonment. They are awaiting his decision.
Council cabinet member for regeneration, Councillor Mohib Uddin, said: “I am very happy to see that by working together with the local community and partners we will have managed to bring these properties on Broadway Street back into use.”
The refurbishment scheme is due for completion early in the New Year.
The properties will then be offered in line with the council’s empty homes strategy with three schemes available to bring them back into use.
These are: property exchange, offered to residents affected by HMR demolition; property home step, a scheme providing affordable homes to first time buyers and rent through First Choice Homes Oldham.
