Orbis Protect and E.ON join forces to tackle empty homes

A new scheme to tackle empty properties has been launched by vacant property specialists Orbis Protect and energy supplier E.ON.

There are over 200,000 long term empty properties in the UK and the scheme offers help to owners of properties that haven’t been lived in from anywhere between six months to 10-15 years.

The scheme will provide specialist clearance and cleaning of any empty properties, externally and internally.

Orbis Protect says they have has a skilled and experienced team already working with a number of social housing providers and currently deal with 100,000 empty properties each year.

E.ON is offering a free survey to private owners of empty properties to establish what is needed to bring the property back up to standard and once complete, can fully manage the refurbishment work to ensure the property is once again habitable

Andrew Angus, Housing Solutions Manager at E.ON, said: ‘Through our work, we’ve seen first-hand the impact empty homes can have on the communities around them and this service can help support them and bring much-needed homes back to use.

‘We hope to be able to offer this solution to other local authorities across the country over the coming months.’

In May, the charity Action on Empty Homes has published a new report which it calls an ‘action plan’ to tackle the issue of empty homes, which is now over 216,000.

The report, called ‘Community Action on Empty Homes’, says better partnerships must be forged between community-led projects, local councils and central government.