AROUND 150 tinned up terraced houses in Wavertree are to be sold off for £1.
The announcement, from Liverpool City Council, aims to "tackle blight" in yet another of the city's most negelected areas and builds on the runaway success of a similar pilot scheme in Liverpool 8.
And this time shops will be included in the major expansion of Liverpool’s Homes for a Pound scheme.
In April 2013, 20 abandoned properties around Granby Four Streets and Arnside Road made headlines when Mayor Joe Anderson announced the plan to sell them off for the token amount of a quid. Buyers had to live or work in Liverpool, be able to bring them up to a decent habitable standard and commit to owning them for five years.
More than 1,000 people rushed to apply and last year the cameras came back as the first householders moved in with one reportedly £150,000 up on his initial investment.
Now that we know that this type of scheme is a viable way of bringing empty homes back into use, we are going to expand it significantly
The city council’s cabinet on Thursday 2 April will recommend the introduction of Homes For a Pound Plus focused on empty terraced homes off Smithdown Road in Picton. The scheme will be split into five separate phases based upon condition and geography in order to manage demand, says the council.
For its part, the council says it will carry out remedial works on the properties that are in a particularly poor condition to make sure that they are viable for people to work on. It also says it will look at introducing a financial assistance scheme for those who do not have the money to hand to carry out the refurbishments.
In addition, it says it will explore offering vacant shop units that it owns along Smithdown Road as part of a "Shops for a Pound" scheme which would see them sold or leased to businesses who can invest in them and bring them back into use.
In the last few years, nearby Lodge Lane has started to buzz with ethnic food stores and restaurants. Could it be that the latest offer will entice a similar retail trade to breathe new life into the derelict fronts on the main traffic artery running from the city centre to south Liverpool?
Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson said: “We had overwhelming interest in our pilot Homes for a Pound scheme and those projects are now starting to come to fruition, transforming run down properties into beautiful family homes.
“Now that we know that this type of scheme is a viable way of bringing empty homes back into use, we are going to expand it significantly and also looking at using a similar model to bring vacant shop units back into use as well.
“This is just one of a number of innovative schemes that the council and its partners are using to drive up the standard of housing in the city, tackling blight and regenerating areas that had been neglected for far too long.
“This part of Picton is already being transformed through the creation of the new Archbishop Blanch High School and this scheme will help further improve the area and make sure it becomes a thriving community again.”
The empty homes that will be targeted as part of the scheme are located in and around Britannia Avenue, Altcar Avenue, Childwall Avenue, Dorset Avenue, Bird Street, Richardson Street, Garrick Street, Tunstall Street and Webster Road.
The current Homes for a Pound waiting list – which saw 1,000 people apply in April 2013 for one of the 20 pilot properties – will be reviewed and there will be an opportunity for new applicants to express an interest in due course.
