George Triggs Britain's Empty Homes

Across the country, empty properties 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 along the way, we'll be following the property detectives

who track down the owners of these forgotten houses

and help breathe new life into the communities blighted by them.

And I'll be doing some digging of my own to find out more

about our housing stock, our heritage,

and why we should be both preserving and reinventing Britain's empty homes.

Restoring an empty building requires a passion for property,

an eye for detail and of course the love of a challenge.

Now, although the process may test the best of us,

more and more people are finding that taking on an empty house

is the best way of affording that home they've always dreamt of.

On today's show, I'll be meeting a first-time renovator

who's bought an abandoned building with big plans to overhaul.

There's still quite a lot that I want to do

that's a little bit out of the ordinary,

a few little features here and there.

And we'll be following one of Britain's empty property officers,

working to change the fortunes

of some of the UK's abandoned buildings.

This is a massive project, isn't it?

And it's great that it's going to be turned back into two family houses.

Artist and sculptor George Trigg was on the lookout

for a home he could both live and work in.

And he found what he hopes will be the ideal place

in his home town in Shropshire.

I think getting that life/work balance within a property

is something that I've always wanted to do.

Really so I can get more work done but also involve Seth, my son,

him having space to run around and play and get creative as well.

This warehouse measures 2,000 square feet

and was empty for a year before George took it on.

Previously used by a building storage company,

George was quick to spot its potential,

both as an artistic and a living space.

What was brilliant about the property

is the fact that it's just an empty shell,

which means you can pretty much do anything you want with it, really.

As a first-time renovator, George is on a steep learning curve,

but his artistic eye should give him a real advantage.

I'm looking to get a really slick finish,

to be comfy, and to have lots of light, which I think is important -

for life, for playing, but also for work and for sculpture.

The renovation is barely off the ground,

but George has already encountered his first obstacle.

There's been lots of delays with planning,

with submissions, with charges which I wasn't aware of,

and it all takes a lot longer than you think it does

when you first start, really.

Hopefully, it'll all go very smoothly,

but I've got a feeling it won't!

George is at the very beginning of his journey,

so I'm meeting him at the warehouse

to hear what his plans are for the building.

-Hey, George, I'm Joe.

-Hi. Nice to meet you.

-Good to see you.

-How are you? Very well, thanks.

-Excellent.

-Now, which property are we talking about here?

-It's this one to the side, here.

Quite an unusual look to it, bolted on the side of this house.

Yeah, it's sort of tucked just behind, it's much bigger when you get inside

and it's '70s construction.

And was it habitable when you took it on?

Er, no, not at all. It's freezing cold inside! THEY LAUGH

It's really a sort of concrete block shell, and no insulation at all,

and there's plants growing into the corner of some of the rooms,

so yeah, it would be very difficult to live inside at the moment.

-Let's go and have a look inside, shall we?

-Brilliant, yeah.

George bought the warehouse for £67,000,

and from the outside, at least,

it looks like a big job for a novice renovator.

Well, George, this is quite a space.

I love the fact that it's adorned with your work already,

you've actually been in here as a workshop, have you?

Yeah, I've been using it as a workshop for about a year now.

Let's look at the big picture of things - how do you want to divide and use this space?

It's pretty much 50/50, really.

This space is going to stay as the work space.

And then back into the back space,

I've got a downstairs open-plan living area

with kitchen, living room, and upstairs, two bedrooms,

one for me and one for my son, Seth, when he comes to stay,

but there's still quite a lot that I want to do that's slightly...

a little bit out of the ordinary, a few little features here and there.

Now, you're here in the workshop -

have you put plans in yet to make the rest of it residential?

Yeah, that's close to being completed, but, erm...

-There's been a few different issues that I didn't foresee happening, really.

-Like what?

-There's an affordable housing contribution.

-I hadn't actually heard of that before,

so that's sort of a levy or tax, if you like,

that you have to pay to the council, is it?

-Yeah, that's right.

-And what are they asking for as your contribution?

How do they measure it in a property like this?

Well, it's everything that gets turned into residential,

and it's a rate that's £90 per square metre,

which for the plans as they are at the moment,

it's round about £11,000.

And I'm still waiting to hear on that

to see what the outcome is, really.

OK, well, let's continue looking round.

-We can walk through this and then have a look upstairs, shall we?

-Yeah, absolutely.

'Planning permission is clearly George's biggest concern

'and it has stalled his project over the last 12 months.

'Once he has permission,

'he intends to have the main living area upstairs

'and create a comfortable family feel

'for his two-year-old son, Seth.

'And to help the budget stretch as far as possible,

'he plans to be a hands-on renovator.'

George, this back half of upstairs will be the two bedrooms, will it?

Yeah, that's right, so one bedroom over that side,

one over this side, and the bathroom about here.

So let's talk budget.

How much do you hope you can do this project for?

I'm hoping, really, to get it in between about 40-50,000.

I think I'd really struggle to get together more than that.

Do you worry that that's quite a tight budget?

I'm hoping it's a generous budget and allows for the other things,

but I might end up completing it and then having very little money

to spend on furniture or anything else, really,

and having to work a lot harder to make up the difference.

The point is, it's an exciting time in the project, isn't it,

because nothing's certain and you're still playing with ideas

and there's lots of creative options open to you.

Just can't wait to get started, really.

I really like this place

and, actually, I think it's really well-matched to George.

It's got all the space he needs, but also it needs a creative eye

to transform it, and I think that's what George brings to this.

George hasn't taken on a project like this before,

so it's going to be really good for him to meet people who have been through it,

who can also help him visualise how to make the best use of this space,

to make it a home for him and his son.

Hundreds of thousands of buildings right across the UK

are left unused and derelict,

wasting away while the housing shortage continues.

It's the job of local council empty property officers

to find these places, work out a plan

and get them back into the community.

Jason Hall is doing just that.

He's on the trail of a derelict building

in Richmond, south-west London.

The house holds a prominent position on a bustling commercial street,

and locals have made a number of complaints

about pests and fly-tipping.

This is a property that's in quite a prime location,

it's on a very busy road.

There's quite a few defects to the front of it, we've got cracks and missing patches of render,

and it just looks kind of unsightly, so I need to go in and have a bit of a closer look, really.

Over the years, the building has been both a home

and a commercial property.

Everything seems quite secure.

We've got a good, strong padlock on there,

and the letterbox has been secured from the inside,

so it's quite secure from the front, all in all.

The house isn't just an eyesore.

Jason has spotted an even greater issue

which could cause serious harm to passers-by.

On the front of the property here, we've got...

the guttering across the top there is in quite a bad state of repair.

It's obviously very rusty, it's been there a long time,

there's a section of it missing on the corner.

The section that's dropped off is here.

And if anybody had been at the front of the property here at the time

and taken that in the head,

then that would have caused quite a bit of damage, I'm sure.

With falling debris, Jason needs to assess

the state of the rest of the building.

And it's not good news.

From the side aspect of the property,

we've got some quite significant subsidence cracks

in the soil stack that runs up the side of the house.

There's two quite large cracks in that,

and again, if that's going to come down,

then that's going to cause some significant damage.

The guttering along the side aspect here is also defective.

The back garden gives Jason a much clearer profile of the house

and the causes for the complaints.

There's quite a lot of stuff that's been dumped in the back garden here.

The original complaint was about fly-tipping.

So it looks like the fence has been pushed in

so people can throw stuff over.

Worse still, some of the waste is extremely hazardous.

We've got some asbestos sheeting here which has come off a lean-to

that was off the back of the house here.

Everyone thinks asbestos is really dangerous, which it can be.

There is health impact,

but only if it's broken and the fibres are released,

but because the back garden isn't overly secure, then if kids, for instance,

were to come in and jump up and down on this, break it,

then there could be a health impact associated with that,

so ideally we'd like to see that removed from the site.

Jason is keen to find out why a building in a bustling part of town

is lying vacant.

He hopes a local developer might provide the missing information.

I've just met with a local developer, who's given me some information on this site,

and it appears that the reason it's stayed empty for so long

is around planning issues.

Basically, I now need to get hold of the current owner

and then I can have a chat with him about where we take it from here.

Jason has now contacted the owner, who's secured the property and plans to turn it into flats.

Rescuing an empty property is no easy task.

Many have fallen into total disrepair

and need a complete overhaul, and it can be very daunting

dealing with planning and large budgets.

However, with determination, expert advice

and, of course, that little bit of luck,

pretty much anyone can take on an empty home.

Ian and Deborah Tanner's local church

had a special connection to the couple -

it sat right at the end of their garden in Devon.

Little did they know that it would one day provide them

with an extreme renovation project and, ultimately, their dream home.

We've lived in Tamerton Foliot for 25 years plus.

Our children used to go to play school

when it was in what was the Sunday school in the church hall,

so we've known the place for a long time.

It closed a couple of years before we bought it.

There was dry rot, wet rot, woodworm here,

which we've had treated, and I'm sure another 12 or 18 months,

then it would have been in real trouble

and probably too much for us to have taken on then.

Hymn books were still on the pews, and the organ was intact

when the couple took a leap of faith

and bought the church at auction for £125,000.

I used to say it would make a really nice home.

It's just a beautiful building to maintain as well,

rather than it go to rack and ruin, for a challenge,

and it was a good time in our lives to do something.

The Tanners made every effort to honour the style and history

of this prominent local church.

All the window shapes have stayed the same,

the doors have stayed the same,

even the paint colour is pretty similar outside

to what it was before.

And the renovation also presented Deborah with the chance

to gain some new skills.

We really enjoyed looking into all the different aspects

of the building, and because I had all these windows

that I knew I was going to need to be doing,

I've done a City & Guilds stained-glass window-making course,

so I've just put the first window in, which has given me a lot of pleasure.

It's like an extra hobby that I've discovered.

Of course, the couple enjoy the entire house,

but they do have their favourite features.

The stairs and the lounge is the best bit for me.

It's a bit of a decision - do you chop it up,

do you go for a big open-plan space?

And we've gone for an open-plan space.

I think we both really love it.

I especially like the woodwork that we had sandblasted -

it was all painted black and it's come up really nice.

We've used the pulpit of the church in the corner as a bar

and we've turned some pews into the dinner table.

As with many renovations of this size,

budgets and timescales can often spiral.

But the Tanners managed to stick to a 20-week schedule,

spending £250,000 in the process.

We have spent more money than we thought we wanted to spend at the start.

But it's not about the money, as far as we're concerned -

it's about having what we've ended up with.

It's a great place to live in,

and I think if you want something badly enough, you'll just carry on and do it.

I'm really proud of the house

and I'm really proud of what we've achieved.

We've managed to get through it all without any kind of...

we haven't had any domestics!

And it is a joy every night when you come home and see it all.

And it takes over your life, to a certain extent,

but it's a great place to live in,

and, you know, we're both really proud of it.

We hear a lot about the housing crisis,

and that's because there are over 100,000 people across the country

on housing waiting lists, while many properties sit empty.

And, increasingly, many of these properties

are former industrial buildings, so then it stands to reason

that these old mills, old factories, old warehouses,

could - and should - be turned into much-needed, perfectly good homes.

I've come to meet Steven Allcock, who's part of the team

behind a huge industrial conversion that's already in motion.

Now, Bolton has loads of mills, old mills. Why is this one listed?

This was the largest mill in Bolton when it was built.

And, uniquely, it was the first electric mill in the country.

So it meant you could have huge floors the size of football pitches,

because the natural light wasn't so important,

because you had electric lighting.

And it didn't stay as a cotton mill, did it?

No, so after five years, it went over to storage and distribution.

-Great, shall we take a look inside?

-Yeah, of course.

-OK.

This former cotton mill gained Grade II listed status in 1996.

The building is huge, covering 300,000 square feet,

and the aim here is to create 282 much-needed homes in the north-west.

So, Steve, this is absolutely huge.

You get a sense of the scale of it up here, don't you?

But this isn't even the full size of some of the lower floors, right?

No, some of the lower floors are double again,

and that used to hold all the machinery, all the engineering works.

And what kind of mix of housing are you creating here?

Who is this aimed at?

They range from one- to three-bedroom apartments,

but very much there is a first-time buyer element

in the one-bedroom apartments,

and we've worked hard to keep them affordable for first-time buyers,

but they go right away up to a three-bedroom penthouse

on the top floor that, you know, may appeal to a down-sizer,

someone that wants that quality.

Well, you've talked about these spacious apartments.

We think it's time to have a look at one. Can we see one downstairs?

Of course. I'll show you one on the fourth floor.

'Many of the apartments in this development have already been sold,

'but converting disused industrial buildings into domestic dwellings

'isn't always possible.'

So looking forward, then,

as more and more former industrial buildings sit empty,

is this a way of creating homes throughout the country?

If it's the right location and the right building, then yes,

but it doesn't work in all cases.

Quite often, mills are in commercial areas

with no amenities, no green space, not many shops,

and it's about developers approaching these sensibly

and thinking them through.

Well, Steven, it's great to see what's being done here,

that you can create 280-odd homes out of this gigantic building.

You're nearly there, just one floor to finish off,

and I wish you all the best with it.

I think there's something really exciting about creating homes

from old industrial buildings, and this is no exception.

I mean, just look at it. However, big buildings like this

struggle to find a role in modern-day lives,

so it is just wonderful now that it can be converted

to create the homes for hundreds of people for years to come.

Back in Shropshire, I'm with George Trigg

who's already bought a disused commercial warehouse

which he plans to turn into a dual-purpose home and work space.

'I'm going to introduce him

'to a couple who also took on an abandoned commercial building

'and secured the right planning permission

'to turn it into their dream home.'

Right, George, this is the place I want to show you. First impressions?

It looks amazing, yeah. Really nice.

It was a 19th-century threshing barn originally.

It stood empty for years and years, derelict.

The guys, Dave and Pam, who will meet you,

who took this on, actually lived in the property next door,

and this is all part of it, and then decided

this was the challenge they were going to take on, so, like you,

lots of negotiating with planners, juggling the budget.

-Shall we go and say hello?

-Yeah, let's do it.

David and Pamela Ward bought this mid-19th-century barn in Shropshire,

along with the cottage in the garden, for £270,000.

Like George's warehouse, the barn had never been lived in

and was an uninhabitable shell when they took it on.

All we had was a stony shell with a corrugated-iron Dutch barn roof.

The enormity of the project soon became clear to Pamela and David

when they learned the barn was a listed building.

We built a modern house inside the barn

and because the barn carried the listing,

we had to preserve its character as much as possible.

We were trying to keep the outside look of the building,

because that, in planning terms, was probably important.

Turning a barn used for threshing grain

into a three-bedroom dream home complete with kitchen,

living room and landscaped gardens took over a year and cost £400,000,

but Pamela and David don't regret spending a single penny.

I love this room. It's nice during the day like this,

it's smashing at night - you can look at the stars -

and during the day, you can look at the clouds going past.

The most satisfying part about doing a job like this

is that it becomes part of you, or you become part of it.

You can't cost it, you can't price it,

but it's certainly an enduring satisfaction.

Well, George, first of all - you walk in, you've got this height,

which is slightly familiar from your own property we saw earlier.

What you like about this?

It's amazing. It's an amazing space,

and yeah, the amount of light is tremendous, really.

George here has had a few issues with planning,

planning going through at the moment,

but had a bit of a nasty surprise

with something called the Affordable Homes Contribution.

Did you have any obstacles,

or how did you deal with the planning process?

The cottage is Grade II listed. Everything within its curtilage

carries the listing, so we had to get listed building consent.

We had to deal with the conservation officers

who were pernickety to start out with,

and their first reaction was, "We don't think the building can be converted."

But I found that, once we got over our original differences of opinion,

the planners were very helpful,

and provided we talked all the time, then it worked all right.

Yeah, and, George, have you been able to meet your planners?

I've only really spoken to them over the phone and via e-mail.

There's that, isn't there? Keep that dialogue going - phone, e-mails,

whatever you can do - to make sure there's no hidden surprises,

and you're in constant touch with each other.

It's really, really helpful, really, because it's hard to know

just when to leave things or when to keep trying, really.

Now, I've caught sight of your living room upstairs,

so shall we go and have a look up there?

-Yeah, sure.

-By all means.

It's incredibly light up here.

Is that what you're looking to do as well, George, with your place?

Yeah, absolutely. I'm trying to do as many roof lights as possible, really,

and one of the benefits of it being a flat roof

is that you can put roof lights in

without it being too much of a planning issue.

George is on a very tight budget,

so where can he make savings or economies? Any advice on that?

Where we spend a lot of money here is on finishes and extras.

The flooring here is better than need be.

You don't have to have glass balustrades,

which are very expensive. You don't have to have lovely furniture.

It's the fittings that tend to run away with the money.

George is at the beginning of this.

What mindset should you try and adopt throughout?

What kept you sane as you took on this project?

Well, what kept me sane was doing each little bit as it came.

Think laterally about it and see whether there is a different way

of doing what you are setting out to do.

If you've got a good relationship with your builder,

then he's worth his weight in gold.

Well, guys, thank you. It's been lovely to look around your home.

I'm pleased it's worked out so well for you.

It seems ideal, so thank you very much.

-Thank you very much.

-Some very good advice, yeah.

-Well, very good luck.

Back in Richmond, empty property officer Jason Hall

is checking up on a building

that's at the beginning of its journey back into use.

This former chapel was built in 1861

and it's now being transformed into two family homes

with the help of a grant from the council.

I'm here to meet up with the architect,

go through the plans and see how the money's going to be spent.

The grant has already been approved,

so we're just waiting for some timescales

when the building will start and when it's likely to finish.

-Hi, how are you?

-Very good, very good.

It certainly looks a lot different to when I came last,

and obviously the scaffolding's quite a new addition.

The scaffolding's been up for three or four months now

and it's keeping the construction nice and dry,

so we're going to get no more rotting insides,

and the structure's now nice and safe inside.

We've got everything propped.

'The chapel stands in a conservation area,

'and Jason is keen to see what the architect, Marek Jasinski,

'plans to do with the council grant.'

This is a massive project, isn't it?

It's going to obviously take quite a long time.

What other plans do you...?

Well, it's going to take about a year,

but the main thing at the moment is to get the fabric stable

and to basically get it watertight.

Part of it is that you've got to retain the front and the rear wall.

Yeah, front and rear, and we're going to keep the sides as well.

We're going to keep as much brickwork as we can

and all the original features.

All the money will be going into the refurbishment of the walls,

really, and the roof. We'll have the original front door over here

and then two staircases running up the building,

one for this house and one for that house over there.

We've also got some French doors out into that courtyard there.

Effectively, we're going to reuse a lot of the existing structure

as much as we can but refurbish it.

This old chapel has fallen victim to the elements over the years,

and Marek has had to adapt his plans

to cope with the impact that nature has had on this building.

So what was one of the biggest problems that you faced?

Well, the major problem here was this wall, which is unstable,

primarily because the trees they've let grow down

the side of the building, but they'd also cut

the tie beams in the roof,

which effectively stop the building being held together,

and that also started to push the roof edge.

Yeah, it's clear the tree's caused a lot of damage

to the structure, but it's good that you're keeping as much as possible,

and it's great that it's going to be turned back into two family houses.

And what's going to be happening with the windows that are up here?

Well, these windows are too high at the moment.

They're ideal for a church but not ideal for a house,

so we're going to pull those down, cut them in,

and you'll see the little pointed tops inside the room.

As you can see, this is quite a high ceiling height in here,

and that's what we're going to have inside the houses,

so it's going to be very nice indeed.

Yeah, it's been really good to meet the architect on site today

and to go through the plans.

I think the money's going to be spent well in this project,

it's going to go into two absolutely lovely family homes

and it's going to make a feature of a building that, at the moment,

is a complete eyesore in the middle of this area.

I've been spending some time with George Trigg

who's already bought a warehouse he hopes to turn into both a home

and an artist's studio.

He's been getting some useful advice

from a couple who have successfully completed an impressive renovation.

George, how's it been for you looking round here,

first of all in terms of visualising

what, basically, four stone walls can become?

It's been amazing.

I mean, just to see something that's such a high level of finish

and so many lovely little ideas and things that are well thought out.

Generally, coming away from this,

how enthused are you to get started?

I can't wait to get started, really.

I'm just hoping the planning comes through any day now

and I can just get those wheels in motion

and hopefully not come across too many problems on the way,

and if I do, I'll pop round for tea and have a chat with these guys.

Well, very good. Honestly, I wish you the best of luck with it.

It's a great place, you've got some lovely ideas for it,

and to have that unique work/live studio would just be perfect,

-so all the best, George.

-Thanks very much.

Well, George is right at the beginning of his project.

He's got a very long way to go,

so this visit has come at just the right time and been very useful.

Some great advice on offer but, more importantly, lots of inspiration

and a reminder that it is absolutely possible

to transform derelict building that's never been lived in

into a wonderful home,

so hopefully now he'll go away enthused and very soon

could have that perfect work space and home he so desires.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd