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In a nutshell

Leasing, lending, loan schemes, community action, innovative finance options, national initiatives, government policy, hard-to-engage owners, New Homes Bonus, EDMOs, best practice in empty homes strategies, practitioner surgery

Last-minute bookings available

Timings

• 09.00 to 10.00 registration and refreshments
• 10.00 to 13.00 morning session
• 13.00 to 13.50 lunch
• 13.50 to 17.00 afternoon session

Details

The Programme for this year's Conference, to be held in Birmingham on Tuesday, 21st May, promises a day that offers an exceptional mix of information, innovation and inspiration.

We are very pleased to be welcoming Don Foster MP, Communities Secretary to update us and answer questions about government policy on empty homes.

Prices are pegged at the same levels as previous years, as low as £99, with hefty discounts for additional delegates.

Headline prices are:

• EHN Members - first delegate: £149
• EHN Members - additional delegates: £119
• Non-members - first delegate: £169
• Non-members - additional delegates: £149
• Discretionary small not-for-profit rates: £99 to £125

Booking form and Conference brochure are downloadable - see the attachments below.

Summary of Programme

• Don Foster MP, Communities Secretary, will update us on government policy and answer questions
• Barbara Stevenson assisted by Samantha Hoad will spell out what it means to be really focused on delivering a cost-effective leasing scheme for people in housing need, while Mark Fisher will outline how the council procured the scheme and helped build an effective partnership to make it work.
• In another session, Mark will explain his approach to dealing with “reluctant lenders” in leasing schemes and update us on strategic moves involving EHN and the Council of Mortgage Lenders to dismantle the barriers that some lenders have erected.
• David Ireland will give us the key details of the National Empty Homes Loan Fund and explore the issues and opportunities that our sector's champions – the charity Empty Homes – will be focusing on during 2013-14.
• Paul Harrod will describe how one small, innovative organisation has used bonds to raise capital funding–  developing a scheme that both tackles long-term empties and delivers major social benefits
• A panel-and-floor session, featuring Nick Pritchard-Gordon and CapacityGRID (Liberata Ltd) will explore how to generate more New Homes Bonus by staying on top of Long-Term-Empties,  
• Later on, Nick  will also present an insightful session on ways to approach and negotiate with the most difficult and often vulnerable hard-to-engage empty homes owners.
• Richard Johnson will be presenting a best practice session on Bristol’s No Use Empty initiative to highlight the routes to producing a vigorous local authority empty homes initiative.
• And later Richard will facilitate our by-now-traditional EDMOthon, which will allow local authority practitioners to share their latest good practice relating to this still-underutilised option.
• Dave Cowley will describe how he’s accessed prudential borrowing to secure significant capital funding for Warrington’s empty homes schemes – and demonstrates how other councils can do the same.
• Kristen Hubert will tell us how Shelter has helped Scotland build an effective national empty homes initiative where the development of shared services is fundamental to ensure delivery
• Rob Greenland will describe the innovative Leeds Empties project, set up to engage a wide range of people in developing enterprising approaches to bringing more empty homes back into use.
• Meanwhile, Andrew Lavender will offer a practitioner surgery where he is guaranteed to be able to answer your questions about enforcement, loans, grants and more...
• David Gibbens will briefly outline the EHN perspective on national policy
• Grafton UK Ltd. are once again proud to present the Empty Homes Practitioner of the Year Award

Making arrangements

The event will be held at Maple House, Corporation Street (same venue as last year). 

If you can persuade your organisation to book early and you need to travel, then rooms at Birmingham Travelodge hotels are still available for  £36 on the night of the 20th (ie the night before the event) (prices as of 1st Mayl 2013).  And no, we are not on commission from Travelodge.

How to get there

See the Directions document in our Information Library

Booking forms

Please return booking forms by email as Word documents, not PDFs.

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