UK homes could sell for £1 as council attempts to rehabilitate suburbs

Homes in Stoke, Staffordshire, could be sold for as little as £1 under a proposed UK scheme to reinvigorate crime-ridden areas. 

Terrace houses would be able to be purchased for the pint-sized price of £1 (A$1.48) and would come with a £30,000 low-interest loan to be used for renovations. 

The only catch is that the owner must renovate the house – typically a two- or three-bedroom property with a backyard – and live in it for five years before it could be sold. 

The £30 million scheme would be funded by Stoke-on-Trent Council and the United Kingdom government. 

Council tax data from 2011 suggests 4,763 homes have been left empty in Stoke. 

Some of these homes are livable, while some desperately need refurbishment. 

The empty homes have attracted arson attacks, squatting, burglary, illegal waste dumping (known as fly tipping) and drug den usage. 

Some squatters cause damage to adjoining properties, and neglected properties can devalue neighbouring property values. 

“At the moment there is vandalism, people using the backyards of empty houses for fly-tipping and all kinds of problems… Something needs to be done,” local resident John Bannister told BBC News. 

The ghost town is a result of a now defunct RENEW regeneration scheme. 

RENEW North Staffordshire was founded in 2004 when the government recognised that the region needed support to improve poor housing. RENEW is the neighbourhood regeneration agency that works together with councils that fall under North Staffordshire. 

The scheme had spent more than £120 million buying up homes and business sites in the hope of transforming them into communities by refurbishing the crumbling homes or replacing them with modern housing. 

The controversial scheme ended in April last year after spending cuts implemented by the coalition government meant the renewal scheme was cut halfway through. 

Brian Hughes of Crane Street in Cobridge told online magazine This Is Staffordshire that there were five homes out of 13 on his street that were boarded up and had become magnets for petty crime.

Another resident, Michael Bamford of Rutland Street, said ripping out of the house next door to his had affected how long it took to heat his home.

Some families had to leave their properties to make way for the regeneration project, which never materialised.

The £30 million scheme would focus on Stoke properties in the Portland street area, Cobridge and the Bond street area, Tunstall.

“If agreed by cabinet, the council will consult with local residents and empty property owners about the plans with a view to starting the scheme in 2013,” said Janine Bridges, councilor for Labour-led authority’s cabinet member for housing, neighbourhoods and community safety.