John Clarkson and Lyndon Hoare Britain's Empty Homes

Across the country, empty buildings that could be homes are waiting

to be brought back into use.

I'll be finding out why, and what you need to do

to rescue a house for yourself.

And I'll be doing some digging

to find out more about our housing stock, our heritage and why

we should both be reinventing and preserving Britain's Empty Homes.

Whether it's city centres, suburban streets or country lanes,

across Britain, disused dwellings left empty

and unloved are an all too familiar sight.

But look past the peeling paintwork, the broken windows,

the overgrown gardens, and these forgotten buildings have the

potential to be turned back into beautiful homes once more.

Today, I'll meet a couple who've bought

an empty house in the country to renovate into their dream home.

We do plan to make some changes, so it won't be just a lick of paint.

We'll see how this derelict hospital has been

transformed into a spectacular family home.

It was on the At Risk Register with English Heritage,

and had been left to, just basically, to rot.

And we're following the property detectives who rescue unloved

and abandoned houses across the country.

It does become more than a job.

You spot these empty properties a mile off

and think, "I could do something with that."

Lyndon Hoare and John Clarkson have busy careers as an HR manager

and software designer in the city.

John and Lyndon currently live in London, but for years they've dreamt

of escaping the rat race and moving to the countryside.

They've recently bought this 1950s three-bedroom semi

in the commuter village of Balcombe, West Sussex.

It was the right location, it was the right price.

It's very much a foothold in the country.

The village is a really nice place. The people are friendly.

It's not a house of great beauty, of itself, but it's very functional.

The house cost £250,000, has laid empty for almost a year,

and is in need of a total refurbishment.

Structurally and fundamentally, it's pretty sound. But the interior

of the house just needs everything doing to it.

The right amount of work and the right kind of work was the thing,

so it was a project that we could take on.

This is John and Lyndon's first project,

and they plan to do a lot of the work themselves.

How much we do ourselves,

how much we get professionals in for, it depends on the work.

As much as we can, we'll do ourselves. All the painting,

building kitchens and stuff like that.

The couple have big ambitions,

including a large rear extension, but a relatively small budget.

The biggest costs will be plumbing, wiring and the extension.

But we do reckon we could do all of that for £50,000.

I'm meeting up with John and Lyndon to find out more.

-This is your new place, is it?

-Yes it is.

-It is, indeed.

Tell me, what attracted you to it?

Well, for me it was the views, the fact that it's in a super area,

an area of outstanding natural beauty, and as far as the house

is concerned, it's a project that needs some work doing to it.

I think it's time for us to have a look inside. Shall we? Lead the way!

Ah, OK. The first thing that catches my eye as we come in...

the camping gear. You're putting that down

-and staying here at the moment?

-That's right.

We tend to come down just for weekends,

and strip wallpaper or plant things in the garden, whatever we're doing.

So, is it superficial, what you have to do?

We do plan to make some changes, so it won't be just a lick of paint.

So it'll be re-plumbed, it'll be rewired, cavity wall insulation.

In terms of the structure of the place,

are you going to do much with the walls?

Enlarge any of the rooms? Are you happy with the size?

Mostly, they'll stay the same, we think.

There's plans to put an extension out the back,

and that might mean the kitchen gets flipped into the extension.

We could knock through and make this a more usable

dining and living area.

Well let's have a look through the kitchen,

and maybe in the garden as well, see where you'd extend. Great.

Right, so this is probably very easy for one person,

-everything's around you, but not so good for the two of you.

-It's pokey.

There's only room for one person in here. We'd like it to be bigger.

So how much bigger would you like your kitchen to be?

Double it, at least.

'I'm keen to see what plans they have for the extension,

'and the rear of the house.'

So looking at the back of the house now,

where and how far out would you extend?

-About three metres from the very back line of the kitchen.

-Right.

Budget and planning allowing, we'd like to come out,

the whole width of the house.

And would it be one storey? What's above it at the back?

Right, well it depends who you're talking to, Joe.

John's thinking about one storey,

I'm thinking that we've got a small third bedroom,

and if we could extend into the roof space of the extension,

that would give us more space and make it a comfortable third bedroom.

I don't think we can go two storeys on that budget.

-I think it's going to be one storey.

-OK.

Having glass on the roof and letting light in that way appeals as well.

Bi-fold doors opening outside as well, and I just,

it's easier to do those things on a one storey.

So, let's talk numbers, then. How much is there

-to play with in the budget?

-Between £40 to £50,000.

I think, we decide what we'd like to do, we have a wish list.

We get a sense of what that's going to cost and that's when we think,

"Let's cut back on the wish list, and make it fit the budget."

There's a lot ahead. It's going to be very interesting for you both.

What's going to be useful is to take you to see a property

that on the face of it looks different,

different style, different size,

but inside, been through remarkably similar challenges.

It'd be good to meet the couple who've done it.

They can answer a lot of questions for you,

and give you some good practical advice. How does that sound?

-It sounds great.

-That sounds like a really good opportunity, yeah.

Really good to meet Lyndon and John. I loved their enthusiasm,

and it's a really exciting project. It's their first one together.

The problems, in my opinion, begin with this ambitious extension.

They haven't agreed on whether it's going to be one or two storeys.

The budget seems extremely tight, and when it comes to managing it,

a lot of the time, they're going to be miles away in London,

which is cause for concern. So, really important for them

to meet a couple who've been through this,

they've got the experience and they can pass on plenty of tips

to Lyndon and John on how to keep their renovation on track.

Not every house is lucky enough to attract enthusiastic new owners.

Across Britain, empty property officers employed by local councils

are carrying out detective work on our abandoned homes,

working tirelessly to bring them back into use.

Steve Reed is one of the empty property officers

for Cardiff Council.

It does become more than a job,

because even on your days off, you spot these empty properties

a mile off and you think, "Oh, I could do something with that."

In his nine years on the job, Steve has brought

over 700 deserted dwellings back to use.

When I finally see an empty property occupied,

it's a great sense of satisfaction that you've played a major part

in getting it back to this occupied state.

Today, Steve is visiting a house that's been on his books

for a while, and is on the brink of being brought back to life.

My involvement with this property is coming to an end, really.

The visit today is just to let the valuers in, to have a look at it,

hand over the keys, and for them to sell it as quickly as possible.

Steve has been granted a compulsory purchase order

on this derelict house, and it's soon to go up for sale at auction.

When it goes to auction,

we put a condition on it that the owner has to renovate

and reoccupy the property within six months.

Today, Steve is meeting with the auctioneer and the council valuer

to discuss the best way to price and market the house.

Right, we'll have a look around inside but be careful,

some of the floors are a bit dodgy, so... mind your step,

and we'll go and have a look.

It's been seriously neglected, and needs some major work

to make it habitable.

-Gosh. That's not safe, is it?

-No. That looks pretty dangerous.

The joists are completely gone there, on the floor.

That'd be quite costly to fill that in, wouldn't it?

Certainly, yeah. Certainly.

-It's not a bad kitchen, is it?

-It's a good size.

Obviously, there's some damp penetrated in

from the first floor bathroom, I would imagine.

-With a bit of work on it, it could look...really good.

-Definitely.

Moving upstairs, there are more structural problems,

which will affect the market value.

-D'you think you can sell this, Matt?

-I don't think there'll be a problem.

I think the auction would be the right route to go down,

you know, in terms of finding a cash buyer for you.

I'll just go through my findings in terms of the amount of work,

judge that with a valuation, and I'll be in touch.

I'll hand these over to you, now.

Great, I'll take them from you. Thank you very much.

Keep in touch and let us know how it goes.

Steve's part in rescuing this house is done.

The hope is it gets a good price at auction.

It's a good feeling for us because we've brought it this far,

and now we can hand it over and relax a little bit

and keep an eye on it. We'll keep monitoring it,

to make sure that someone does move in, and once they're in,

it comes off our books and we're on to the next one.

Taking on an empty property clearly isn't easy.

It can involve months of exhausting, relentless and expensive work.

But if you've got the confidence, the vision, the know-how,

then the rewards can be second to none.

In Wimbledon, Peter Beckwith took on an extraordinary restoration,

when he bought this 15-bedroom Victorian mansion.

Previously owned by a hospital trust, it came with four acres

of grounds and had been empty and derelict for almost 40 years.

When I came round, I was a property investor,

and the main attraction was that it was four acres of free-hold land.

So, my ideas were in terms of knocking the whole thing down

and building some new modern housing or whatever.

But in fact, when my wife and I walked round the Victorian building,

it became quite clear to us that it would make a magnificent home.

Peter's used to taking on challenging projects,

but he was over-awed by the scale of this renovation.

What shocked us was we'd been told it was a Grade II listed building,

but we hadn't been told that it was on the At Risk Register

with English Heritage, and had been left to, just basically, to rot.

There was practically nothing in the building which was worth retaining.

Peter bought the house in 1997 for £2,000,000.

He then spent almost another 2,000,000 totally gutting it

and rebuilding all the interiors.

The building was stripped back to, literally, the four walls,

the chimney stacks and nothing else.

And that was how bad the deterioration had set in.

The roof is completely new.

The window frames and all the woodwork has been replaced.

The conservatory clearly is a new innovation,

and it's a tremendous environment where you can have the doors open,

you can still watch your television,

and you can pretend that you're actually sitting out in the garden.

Overall, this was an epic year-and-a-half restoration,

but now Peter and his family have a spectacular home.

I mean, we spent money which

a commercial developer would never have put in, but I knew

that we were going to live here for 15, 20 years, maybe longer.

I knew we were going to enjoy it and, most importantly,

our family were going to enjoy it.

I think our children and grandchildren will say,

"The old couple did a good job.

"They created a lovely home for us and good on them."

From the rescue of a derelict Victorian pile in Wimbledon,

we're heading to Liverpool, where whole streets

of period houses have been stuck in limbo for almost 20 years.

I've come to the Granby area of Liverpool, where

a phenomenal number of properties are empty and boarded up.

Row after row of Victorian terraces face an uncertain future.

The local residents would like to see these homes brought back to use,

but the reality is, the majority of these properties

are earmarked for demolition, to be replaced by new builds.

Many trace Granby's problems back to the Toxteth riots of '81.

These streets have been bought up by the council and earmarked

for demolition and redevelopment.

The plans have got caught up in red tape and bureaucracy,

leaving hundreds of local houses boarded up and empty for years.

I'm meeting Jonathan Brown, a town planner and member of the

Liverpool Civic Society, who's been campaigning to save these streets.

Help me make sense of this. We're not talking about a few houses,

we're talking about streets and streets. Why so many?

And why have they been boarded up for so long?

You have to track back probably ten years or more to understand.

There's a policy to knock down over 20,000 houses across Merseyside

because there were seen to be too many for the population

that has shrunk since its heights before the war. That's why

these houses are in the state you see,

and the people who live here have been victims

of this high-level bulldozer that's swept through this neighbourhood.

It's such a waste of building resources, but also money.

There must be a lot of money tied up in these places.

Hundreds of millions has been spent in Liverpool alone

just really to buy up, board up and potentially bulldoze.

Thankfully these have not yet been bulldozed. Now we're left in limbo.

So, the important thing is where do we go from here?

So how much hope is there, that many of these can be saved?

They're still in fair condition, given the neglect they've had,

There's still the prospect of putting people to work on them,

to learn skills. People who are unemployed

could work and train on these houses.

We know that there are investors lined up keen to get stuck in

if they can get hold of the property.

While they still stand, Joe, there is hope.

But something needs to change. We would call on the government

to sit down with the council and take a new approach,

and try and work with local residents to get this sorted out.

It's shocking to see buildings sitting here in this state,

and it's not just a few of them. Street after street,

whole neighbourhoods that are now ghost towns.

But there are residents around here,

and they're determined to keep the community spirit alive.

Only eight out of 60 houses are occupied in the street

where Eleanor Lee and Carol Folder live.

They've done their best to keep their community alive

and the bulldozers at bay.

Alongside their campaign against demolition,

Eleanor and Carol have made it their mission to brighten up their street.

In a sense, this community felt forgotten.

People moved out, the buildings were left boarded up.

But you've taken it on and you've done your best to try

and keep life here. How have you done that?

Talk me through some of the touches that you've done

to reclaim control.

We started connecting to each house that was lived in,

so we started green sort of links and then we started painting,

then we just expanded so that we've done, oh, it's over 50 houses now.

And it's a nice feeling when you think, "I'll do the house next door.

"Oh, that looks nice. Put a few more plants in that one, down there."

And that's how it took off.

There are some plans for development now. What are they? What's in store?

The city council, in our four streets, they own 130 properties.

And they've put those as a block out to tender, to a developer.

There'll be some demolitions, I imagine.

-But the focus of it is refurbishment.

-That seems like good news.

But what would you like to see happen here?

At the moment, it's like one size fits all.

It's like, it moves as a block, and no individuals can buy into it,

so our preferred option would have been to allow members of,

you know, individuals to buy cheap and do them up at their own rate.

But, what we're trying to do is, we're trying to negotiate with

either, which ever developer wins, to see if we can secure some

properties in this area, which will be owned by the community.

Because the members of this community have invested time,

money and commitment, really.

Yeah, and it's off the back of your campaigns

to keep the building stock, that it is now possible

-for developers to come and refurbish.

-Oh, I'm sure it is, yeah.

You've managed to really pull together here

and foster an amazing community spirit.

So, with that kind of determination, who knows what can happen?

And it's a very tough, enterprising community,

who are used to surviving hard times.

Well, there is still hope so, I wish you all the best with this.

-Onward, onward!

-Onward. And there is a lot of hope.

What the ladies and other members of the community

have been able to achieve here is really quite special.

They weren't forced out, they've hung on in here

and they've managed to create quite a unique spirit.

Who knows what's going to happen?

Hopefully, many of these buildings can be saved.

And it's good that a developer is taking a lead on that,

but I also hope that people get a chance to invest here.

Local people, families, individuals,

so they too can have a stake in this community.

Earlier, I met John Clarkson and Lyndon Hoare,

who are renovating this 1950s semi in Balcombe, West Sussex.

John and Lyndon have big plans, but need to agree

on how they would extend the property for just £50,000.

I'm bringing them to Tunbridge Wells in Kent,

to meet a couple who've tackled a similar renovation.

Right, here we are. This is the property I want you to see.

I think you're going to like it. I'm excited. Shall we have a look?

-Yeah, let's.

-Come on, then.

Executive film producer Tony Holce and his partner Marion Bird

previously lived just two doors down

from this Georgian end-of-terrace cottage.

The house was built for railway workers,

and unusually, since 1940, only one family had lived here.

It had been empty for 12 months,

and hadn't been refurbished in 70 years.

To walk into this place was horrendous!

It was yellow with dried nicotine.

You could see where pictures had been hung, you pulled out three-pin

plugs and there was the shape of the plug, which caused us problems

because you can never get rid of this unless you get rid of the walls.

And Tony and Marion had to get their hands dirty to do the place up.

The roof had to come off. Plumbing, drainage, completely rewired.

-Everything had to be renewed.

-I mean, it was total renovation.

Yes, not just a refurb, it was...lots of rebuilding.

They had an initial budget of £70,000 to renovate

and add on this spectacular extension.

But they eventually ended up spending around £100,000

to get the house how they wanted it.

I suppose if you start literally with a gutted building,

you can actually say, "Right, it's ours to do what we want with."

And I like to think that we've been sympathetic to the original building.

It's just lovely to have a mix of old and new.

That's what's worked really well.

Come the winter, we spend a lot of time there with the open fire,

shut the door and it's nice and cosy and old fashioned,

and in the summer we can sit out here,

open the doors and I think that's what's worked really well.

I think we'd have to go a long way to find something to match it.

This property was in a similar state to the one

Lyndon and John are taking on,

so I'm hoping they'll glean some useful advice from this visit.

So, Marion and Tony, this is Lyndon and John.

-Welcome.

-Hi.

-In we come, very good. Look at this.

My hunch is, it's right up your street.

I think this is absolutely gorgeous, I must say. I think,

you've shown daring and creativity in taking down a wall here.

And I love this. I love the height difference as well. It's really...

No, it does work.

'The area I feel will be of most interest to John and Lyndon

'is the extension.'

Oh, wow.

Right, so what d'you make of this? Very clean, simple, modern.

It looks great. It really looks super. Lots of light.

Lots of light again, yeah, using the full length of the glass panels.

It's really given me a sense of what we could do with

that space at the back of the house where we want to extend.

It's nice, it's sleek, it's clean. It's simple. I really like it.

I love the light, I love the doors, we've talked about bi-fold doors

and opening out onto the back yard, so, it's...

it's exactly the style of thing we're looking for.

Was that reflected in your budget?

Are your priorities that, of all the areas, you had to get this one right

and you could spend more on the fixtures and fittings?

It was a priority. Yes, definitely.

Because we do live a lot in here, especially in the summer,

cos you've got this lovely light. We've got no intentions of moving

and probably not going to be doing it again.

I think it's the things that finally make it your house

that cost the extra money.

'Outside, I want John and Lyndon to get a sense of how clever

'the design is for the extension.'

Now, as we look up, we can see your extension,

the brick goes higher than the room we were just in.

-So, have you extended a bedroom up there?

-Yes, we squared it off.

It was just a narrow bedroom, and we've extended it.

-So, does that ring a few bells, guys?

-Just a bit, yeah.

I suppose, if you were to summarize it, here we see a middle ground.

We have an extension on the lower floor, a bit of an extension

on the top floor. You don't have to come out in a big block,

but you've got a bit of both.

How does that strike you as a possibility?

Very sensible, actually. I can see that working.

Definitely, I think the half and half solution

would definitely be one that we would consider

very carefully as a potential to extend our smaller third bedroom.

Just add an extra metre and a half, two metres...

-It does make a big difference, yeah.

-Huge difference.

With the budget, these guys are trying to work out

how far they can make their money go.

So what did you budget it to cost and how much over did you go?

60 to 70 was the budget, and it just topped 100,000.

But then, you've got to work out what you set out

to include in your budget.

I think, in fairness, we weren't that far out with the actual build cost,

but it was when you started looking at furniture,

appliances, and this was what Marion and I projected long-term.

So, we wanted, we didn't care

whether somebody moving in would like it or not like it.

So I think, that's the thing you two probably have to think about.

Is it going to be our home for the next 15, 20 years?

In which case, just do your own thing.

Guys, it's been a pleasure seeing around your house.

I'm pleased it's turned out well.

-I hope it's been useful.

-Really useful.

-Very interesting.

It feels like it's been really worthwhile for John and Lyndon,

and I hope they've been inspired by some of the ideas

that have helped make this a beautiful place.

I'm keen to see what they'll take home from this visit.

How impressed, how inspired are you with the style

and the modern design of what you've seen here?

I'm definitely very impressed.

It's certainly given us a lot of food for thought and discussion.

And there's a view there that you can have a middle ground.

You don't have to extend one or two storeys,

you could do one storey and a bit of two storeys, yeah.

I like that, I like that idea a lot.

-I think that can work, I can see how that can work for us.

-Really?

Very, very useful. It's been really valuable.

And we can get the light and the space we wanted,

but still make that bedroom more usable.

It still comes down to money. How concerned were you to hear of,

I mean, pretty large costs compared to your own budget?

A little, but we'll probably do more hands-on, ourselves.

And, erm, we haven't got as much fundamental stuff to do.

So, not too bad, we might have to go up a bit.

I suppose now, having seen this, visualised how it can be,

-it's time to go home, plan it and make those decisions.

-Absolutely.

We haven't talked to an architect, and that's the next thing.

So this was the right time to be getting ideas

and seeing what could happen.

-And you're going forward energised, motivated?

-Definitely, all of that.

It's been a good day. Thank you very much.

It's so good that John and Lyndon could see this place today.

There are so many comparisons between what's here

and what they'd like to do with their empty home. You know what?

I think it's come at the right time, before they make any big decisions.

Yes, their budget is very tight,

but with the good practical advice they've heard here,

I'm confident they can make their money go as far as possible,

so that very soon, they too will have their own dream home.

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