Greg Wright: Let's take bold approach to make homelessness history

THE sight of a rough sleeper curled up outside a derelict shop is a powerful sign that British society remains deeply fragmented.
A bold approach is needed to tackle the problem of homelessness, according to Greg Wright  Picture Tony Johnson.A bold approach is needed to tackle the problem of homelessness, according to Greg Wright  Picture Tony Johnson.
A bold approach is needed to tackle the problem of homelessness, according to Greg Wright Picture Tony Johnson.

It’s obscene that so many buildings lie empty when many struggle to find a safe, warm place to sleep.

So here’s a thought: why don’t we simply reopen these disused shops and transform them into homes? This measure could create hundreds of thousands of new places to live, take the pressure off green space and, potentially reduce the number of people sleeping rough.

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A naïve pipe dream? Hardly. The hard-headed Federation of Master Builders (FMB) shares my enthusiasm for this type of project. If you stroll down the high street of any Yorkshire market town, there’s a good chance you will find a depressingly large number of disused shops. It’s a sign of the times. When it comes to shopping, growing numbers of consumers prefer clicks to bricks and mortar. But this story could have a happy ending. At a time when home ownership is a distant dream for millions of people, the Government, business and local councils should join forces to bring back a British tradition that has been neglected for decades. It’s time to encourage more people to live above the shop.

The FMB estimates that as many as 300,000 to 400,000 homes could be created by making use of empty spaces above shops on our high streets. I must applaud Brian Berry, chief executive of the FMB, who said: “What we must avoid is perfectly good space lying empty and achieving nothing in terms of boosting the local economy or housing individuals and families.”

Here are a few practical steps that could make this dream become a reality, which are highlighted in the FMB report, Homes on our High Streets. Councils, could, for example, include references to building homes above shops on the high street within their planning documents. This would provide a signal to developers that they are likely to get a sympathetic hearing if they plan to turn disused commercial space in a town centre into a house or flats.

Councils could also cut through red tape to make it easier to turn rooms above shops, or even the shops themselves, into residential space.

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The local authority could use its clout to tackle problems caused by disparate ownership and work with existing property owners to improve access and parking. And if the market isn’t strong enough to make such development viable, central government should make available low cost loans, grants and fiscal incentives.

The FMB’s own research indicates that about 90 per cent of MPs believe that converting empty space above shops into living space could ease the housing crisis. These warm sentiments must be turned into action.

The concept of Living Over the Shop was pioneered in Yorkshire by the social campaigner Ann Petherick in 1989, with start-up funding from the Rowntree Foundation. It devised a radical approach to tackle the problems caused by vacant upper floors that were owned by absentee landlords, involving a commercial lease granted to an intermediary.

Ms Petherick recalled: “This proved attractive to many high-street retailers, such as NatWest and other banks, and between 1991 and 2005 more than 10,000 people were housed.

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“In 2003 Ministers accepted there was the potential to house at least 500,000 in this way, but LOTS has had no funding since 2005 and the initiative is dormant.”

The failure to build on the very promising start made by the LOTS project is a colossal wasted opportunity. In the years since, austerity and Brexit have stolen the Government’s attention. But the problem and solution lie in plain sight.

All it needs is a party of business people and members from the chambers of commerce to walk down their high street and identify shops that could become homes.

Once these disused shops have been found, a task force must be established involving the public and private sectors to ensure these properties become places to live as quickly as possible. Incentives must be offered to social housing developers who want to create homes above shops.

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This brave approach will revive our high streets and ensure more people have a place to call home. With the flexing of muscles in central and local government, we really could take a giant stride towards making homelessness history.