Almost 300 empty homes have been brought back into use as part of Salford’s housing boom.
Since 2012, Salford City Council has used £2.5million of government funding to transform 289 vacant and disused properties into much-needed affordable accommodation.
The money has been provided to property owners to help revive their properties. And they spent an extra £4.2million in refurbishment and renovation works which has boosted the local economy.
Salford has now recorded the fifth highest reduction in empty properties out of all 353 local authorities in the country.
Councillor Gena Merrett, Executive Lead Member for Housing and Environment at Salford City Council, said: “Salford’s population is growing, employment is rising and the social and cultural life is thriving.
“Reducing the number of empty properties is having a positive impact on our communities and providing much needed affordable homes for people to live in.”
One of the success stories from the scheme is a pair of large Victorian terraced houses in Broughton, situated in a conservation area and empty since the 1980’s. A compulsory purchase order was used by the council to buy the properties and they were then sold on a contract with conditions to ensure they were fully refurbished. They have now been renovated, keeping some of the original features, and turned into much needed family homes.
