A scheme to help bring empty homes across Crewe and Nantwich back into use has been backed by Cheshire East Council.
The aim of the newly-launched National Empty Homes Loan Fund (NEHLF) is to help tackle the country’s housing shortage.
There are 1,371 properties Cheshire East properties that have been empty for between six months and a year.
And a further 944 homes have been empty for longer than two years.
Cllr Don Stockton, Cheshire East Cabinet member in charge of housing, planning, economic development and regeneration, said: “We know many properties are lying empty in the borough because owners simply do not have the money needed to bring them back up to a habitable standard.
“This new initiative we are supporting will give a real boost to helping to tackle this.”
The NEHLF will offer secured loans of up to £15,000 at a fixed five per cent interest rate to enable owners to renovate the property to a national standard.
Cheshire East Council, charity Empty Homes and central government are managing the NEHLF locally.
The Ecology Building Society, a specialist mortgage lender that supports sustainable communities, will administer it.
Funding will be available to people aged 18 and over and who own a property that has been empty for six months or more.
It will operate alongside the council’s existing Empty Homes Assistance scheme, which offers homeowners loans of up to £10,000 to carry out repairs to empty homes.
(Pic by SomeDriftwood, Flickr creative commons)
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