Finalists from Orkney to Ayrshire in national empty homes awards

Renovated homes last occupied before the millennium are among those in the running for a national competition which celebrates work done to bring empty property back into use.

Sixteen finalists from Ayrshire to North Ronaldsay in Orkney have been short-listed in the Howdens Scottish Empty Homes Champions of the Year Awards.

The featured projects include a former school house in Lochearnhead that was last occupied in 1999, a tenement in Campbeltown, a sandstone flat in Glasgow and a former elderly care unit in South Uist.

The awards are held annually to shine a spotlight on people battling to bring the country’s 39,000 privately-owned long-term empty homes back into use.

Shaheena Din, National Manager of the Scottish Empty Homes Partnership which organises the awards, said: “Scotland is beginning to turn a corner on empty homes, with more than a thousand empty properties brought back into use in a single year in 2018– 2019, the first time that milestone had been passed since the partnership was set up in 2010.

“These awards are a chance to celebrate all the hard work of people like empty homes officers, housing associations and community groups who realise that these properties are a massive asset in the face of our housing emergency. I want to wish all our finalists the best of luck.”

Phil Hanson, Depot Manager for Howdens Joinery, which is sponsoring the awards for a fourth year, said: “Howdens is delighted to be sponsoring the awards to help bring well-deserved attention to the determined people who are working tirelessly across the country to make these empty buildings homes once again.

“I’d like to congratulate this year’s finalists. With entries from Ayrshire to Orkney, we have seen a huge variety of exciting projects which are solving problems for owners and communities but, most importantly, providing homes for people to live in.”

The Howdens Scottish Empty Homes Champions of the Year Awards 2019 will be held alongside the SEHP’s annual conference at Riddle’s Court in Edinburgh’s Old Town on 20th November. The Scottish Empty Homes Partnership is funded by the Scottish Government and run by Shelter Scotland.

Howdens Scottish Empty Homes Champions of the Year Awards 2019 finalists

Outstanding Individual

Lesley Cockburn, South Ayrshire Council

Murdo Macleod, Western isles

Emma Anderson, North Ayrshire Council

Outstanding Service

Glasgow Empty Homes Service, Glasgow City Council

Kingsmith Property 1,000 Homes Initiative

Housing Services Private Sector Team, North Ayrshire Council

Best Collaborative Project

Gravir Housing, Pairc, Western Isles

North Ronaldsay School House, Orkney Islands

Campbeltown tenement transformation, Argyll and Bute

Oldest Long-term Empty

Gardner Street, Glasgow

School Road, Lochearnhead

Property in Campbeltown, Argyll and Bute

Best Before and After

Burnlea, Stevenston, North Ayrshire

Listed cottage in Fintry, near Stirling 

Main Street, Glasgow

House in Southend, Kintyre Argyll and Bute