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Wood floors may be feature of renovated homes

25th January 2012

The housing crisis in the UK is a well-documented fact and building more homes is one of the ways in which it can be tackled. But it is not the only one.

Right now, there are 720,000 residences lying idle, with 280,000 being in this state for over six months, according to communities minister Andrew Stunell.

He has formally launched the government's £100 million fund for community groups to help them take over such homes and restore them to make them fit to live in again, a measure aimed at taking blighted streets filled with dereliction and grime and turning them into living communities again.

In some cases, these homes may be fitted with solid wood floors, offering a warm and timeless look.

The announcement came with some examples of groups who have been at work doing this for many years, such as Giroscope in Hull, founded in 1985 by ex-students and unemployed people, who put together what money they had on a programme that has seen them restore dozens of residential and commercial properties in the city.

Mr Stunell commented: "The blight of empty, abandoned homes is putting strain on communities right across the country - if every empty home were refurbished and made fit for living, we could nearly halve the housing waiting list. Thousands of homes have already come back into use in the last year - but there's plenty more to do."

He noted that 21,000 empty homes have already been restored thanks to government funding, but noted more needs to be done to tackle this "national disgrace". 

The news could be welcomed by the UK construction sector, which saw a significant fall in output in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Official figures have estimated its output declined by 0.5 per cent in this period, having risen by 0.3 per cent in the third quarter.

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