Bringing Empty Homes in Barrow Island back into use

Barrow Borough Council has been allocated £3.4m from the Clusters of Empty Homes Fund to help bring empty properties back into use. This fund, totaling £60m across England, was set up to deal with neighbourhoods where more than 10% of properties are empty, and where at least 100 homes can be brought back into use. Barrow Island was selected for a bid as the only area in the Borough that met these criteria, and a bid was submitted to bring empty homes back into use amongst barrow Island flats. More detail on the fund can be found from the Homes and Communities Agency.

What will the funding be used for?

Barrow Island flats are all in private ownership and area rented out. A condition of the funding is that the government money has to be matched by investment from elsewhere. For Barrow Island, this match funding will come from the private owners, so the public investment will draw at least the same amount of private investment.

The bulk of the money will be used to work with the owners of the largest two property portfolios to accelerate a programme of refurbishment, to bring the properties back to a lettable condition. A programme of improvements to the environment around the flats will also take place, to improve the general appearance of the neighbourhood.

Barrow Council are currently working on the detail of this funding programme and will provide further information as it becomes available.