Grant funding from North East Lincolnshire Council allowed Doorstep to purchase and renovate a derelict property, leading to the council and its regeneration partner EQUANS winning two national housing awards.

A blight on the community

At Doorstep we know that derelict houses have a negative impact on the local community. That’s why when we were contacted by North East Lincolnshire Council about a house that had fallen in to significant disrepair, we took the opportunity to turn it in to a family home.

Sarah Wydell, Property Services Manager for Doorstep explains: “The house was causing problems for the neighbours due to it being sat empty for a number of years: it attracted fly tipping, vandalism, theft, and was the only house on the street that was boarded up. The private landlord was in negative equity; nobody would buy the house as the asking price was more than the house was worth in conjunction with the cost to repair the property.

“The council gave us a grant towards the purchase price of the property to make it financially viable to buy and renovate. Without this grant the project was not possible.”

The house was stripped back to bare brick with works including: a replacement roof, replacement ceilings and floors, a damp-course, new windows and doors, a new bathroom, new kitchen, internal doors replaced, electrical rewiring and a new central heating system. Local contractors were used to carry out the works and a £5k grant from ScrewFix was used towards the cost of materials.

A win for everyone

Sarah goes on to say: “The project was a win-win for everyone involved: the local authority no longer had an ASB hot-spot to deal with, another long-term empty property was off their list, the community no longer had to live next to a derelict eyesore that attracted anti social behaviour, the owner no longer had a property in negative equity that they could not afford to sell or repair, we were able to renovate the property to a high standard and ultimately provide an equally high standard of ethical housing management which we are in for the long term.”
The property was let to a first time parent who had family within the area and wanted to stay close. The property was let as a supported tenancy with the longer term goal to move the it over to general needs housing when the tenant no longer needed support. This is a sustainable approach to housing that keeps people in place for longer.

In conjunction with NE Lincs Council and EQUANS the renovation won two housing awards. You can read more about this here.

Could you renovate a house like this?

We are always willing to hear from local contractors who can help us renovate and maintain our current housing stock.