Annual Impact Report 2024

Meeting our strategic objectives – 4

Support the network of dedicated empty homes officers through the provision of training and best practice sharing

Supporting empty homes officers throughout Scotland, we provided in depth training sessions for 18 empty homes officers.

This included 6 officers across 5 local authorities recruited in the last financial year. These training sessions had a particular emphasis on developing networking and peer support, covering topics ranging from enforcement to case management. The networking model has been especially helpful for Empty Homes Officers as they do not typically have local peers and perform specialist work.

“I appreciate the support and advice of SEHP. In particular, the online sessions are very useful for sharing knowledge and for inspiring me with examples of best practice across other local authorities. I have been able to take some of the ideas forward to improve our own service already and am working on implementing some others in the longer term. The sessions are always interesting and well run.”

– Gillian Flack,
Housing and Regeneration Development Officer,
Dumfries and Galloway Council

The best practice sessions are a forum for Empty Homes Officers to network with peers and share current issues and solutions. External speakers, such as such as the Rural & Island Housing Fund and senior council tax managers, have been invited to share their expertise. We have also hosted workshops focussing on key issues raised by the officers with presentations from organisations offering solutions.

Our annual survey responses show positive average feedback across all these areas with our best practice sessions receiving 4.21 out of 5, workshops rated 4.08 and learning offer given 4.

Rating of usefulness

The network allows us to be responsive to EHOs needs and provide additional referral pathways that they might not have the capacity to develop. Based on feedback we developed a new energy advice service in partnership with Home Energy Scotland. The officers can incentivise and support empty homeowners by referring them for advice on energy bills and improvements to home energy efficiency. This expands our offer of specialist external advice support available to EHOs. Our existing referral partnerships includes Brodies, who provide legal advice, and Millar & Bryce, who help identify heirs & executors.

Using our expertise, we directly influenced the expansion of an existing empty homes service. We presented to representatives of Edinburgh City Council, making the case that empty homes work should be mainstreamed and officers better resourced. This resulted in an amendment to the Strategic Housing Investment Plan 2024-2029 and led to recruitment of a second Empty Homes Officer. There has long been a need for this as the current sole officer had a high caseload. Our presentation also recommended the use of Compulsory Purchase Orders, which the council’s Homelessness and Fair Work Committee agreed to explore.