It seems that more and more Councils are embracing the Government's Empty Homes Cluster Programme, as Durham Council is now making funds and loans available to get the County's empty houses fit for habitation.

The Council,as part of the Empty Homes Cluster Programme, is making grants available amongst other incentives, so that people will invest in the properties, it does not matter whether they intend to live in or rent them out when fit for accommodation.

The Government is funding the Council so that it is able to make these opportunities available to the public.

Renovation work can be funded by up to a £15,000 interest free repayment loan. The maximum repayment period is over ten years.

There is a five thousand pounds grant for people moving into one of the properties as owner occupiers, when buying a long term empty property. They must live there for more than three years.

For those owners who wish to rent the property out then they will receive a £1,000 white goods grant for the properties.

The Council's guidelines for those properties eligible for the assistance is that the homes must have been empty for more than six months, which then constitutes them as an empty property. The help is for people who cannot rent or sell their property or simply do not want it, as well as for new occupier owners and investors.

If people have acquired a second property through wills etc and they do not want to bother with managing the property, the Council is able to help and will freely give advice on how to improve their situation rather than letting the property get into a rundown state, going to waste and depriving much needed accommodation.

The Council's team will also offer assistance and guidance to anyone who has a home that is in a bad state and anyone looking to buy a property that is in a poor state of repair.

The incentives are available to properties which fall into the Band A and B Council Tax criteria.

Richard Merrick of PIMS says: " The Government's Empty Homes Cluster programme is a laudable scheme and hopefully more and Councils will come on board.

"It has come to our attention that some councils that are offering these incentives are thinking about introducing heavy fines for those people that keep their properties empty. This can be unfair as there could be a variety of reasons why some homes are empty, such as owners are abroad and those who are ill and are not aware of the scheme."