Mayor of London Boris Johnson is forming a partnership with Big Issue Invest to renovate empty properties into affordable homes.
The mayor has awarded a £10m loan from his Housing Covenant Fund to Big Issue Invest, a specialist provider of finance to social enterprises.
The funding will revolve over a 10-year period and result in up to 400 empty homes being transformed into good-quality low-cost housing. It will also provide long-term unemployed people, veterans and out of work young people from across London the opportunity of employment and training in the construction sector.
Launched in December 2012, the mayor’s Housing Covenant supports organisations that propose innovative ways of delivering affordable housing through a Revolving Fund.
More than 5,000 empty homes have been brought back into use through GLA housing programmes since 2008 and the proportion of empty homes in London now sits at 0.7%, the lowest level since the 1970s.
Johnson said: “Big Issue Invest is a master of boosting community social enterprise and delivering key employment and training skills to the homeless and unemployed people who need our extra support. This funding sits alongside my affordable home programme which is on track to deliver 100,000 new low-cost homes across the city.”
