Tony and Georgia Pankhurst Britain's Empty Homes

Up and down the country, there are empty properties

just waiting to be brought back to life.

I'll be finding out why,

and what you can do to rescue a home for yourself.

We'll be following the empty property officers

whose job it is to track down the owners of forgotten houses

and get them back into use.

And I'll be doing some digging of my own,

to find out more about our housing stock,

our history, and why we should be both preserving

and reinventing Britain's empty homes.

An empty property can blight an otherwise picturesque street,

but for people with vision and ambition,

these buildings have tremendous potential.

And for first-time buyers, they can be that all-important step

on to the property ladder.

On today's show, an air stewardess

flying the nest for the first time...

I was excited, but at the same time, I was very scared -

obviously, the prospect of moving out and not being at home

and growing up and having to do everything yourself.

..an ambitious regeneration of terraces into affordable homes...

It's about preserving the heritage,

but actually recognising that in the 21st century,

we live a little bit differently.

..and one of Britain's empty property officers

who's on a mission

to bring Birmingham's abandoned buildings back into use.

Living next door to this must be an absolute horrible nightmare, really.

Earlier this year, Tony Pankhurst felt it was time

for his 20-year-old daughter Georgia

to move out of the family home and settle in a place of her own.

My wife actually said to Georgia,

"You're nearly 21. It's time to fly the nest.

"Get out of my hair!"

Didn't she?

And I thought it really is a great opportunity for her

to get out onto the property ladder.

The sooner any youngsters can get on the property ladder,

the better it is.

As an air hostess,

Georgia flies out of Heathrow,

but wanted to find a house near Mum and Dad.

With the budget I had, I didn't think I'd be able to get a house.

Then I saw this

and it was just perfect.

She found a 1980s end-of-terrace on the market for ?114,000.

To be honest, I fell in love with it straight away.

I know it needed a lot of work doing,

but ideally I wanted to find somewhere

that needed sort of everything doing to it,

so I could make it my own

and have it exactly how I wanted it.

I was excited, but at the same time, I was very scared -

obviously, the prospect of moving out and not being at home

and growing up and having to do everything yourself.

The house was a repossession property

and empty for four months, it needed some serious TLC.

When we arrived, we thought, "Oh, my goodness!"

Completely derelict, really, wasn't it?

It needed so much work doing.

But despite the dilapidated state,

Tony immediately agreed with his daughter

and saw it had potential.

When we looked in the garden,

and we found that there was a huge amount of space,

we thought there's a good opportunity to extend here,

which could add to the value of the house.

There was plenty of interest in the house

and Georgia made an offer for ?119,000,

?5,000 over the asking price.

There were seven of us bidding on it.

So...the chances of me getting it, obviously, were very slim.

And I did get it in the end.

You got it in the end, and here we are.

I was really fortunate that my dad managed to help me out

with the deposit, didn't you? Mm-hm.

He gave me a deposit. That's what dads do, isn't it?

Having spent most of her budget,

this leaves Georgia with just ?5,000 to create her dream home.

I think the biggest challenge

will be deciding on how I want to have everything.

It's just nice, really, that the house is almost like a blank canvas

and I can make it exactly how I want it,

how I've always wanted my first house.

Georgia and Tony have stripped out the old fixtures and fittings

and are raring to go.

Hopefully, I can help them with the next step.

Morning!

How are you? Hello, Joe. I'm Tony.

How are you both?

Good, thank you. Good, thanks.

I should start by saying congratulations. Thank you.

This is your first place? It is, yes.

And why here - why this area?

I've grown up here my whole life.

I know the area really well.

I've got all my family here and all my friends.

And the building itself, not that old. Do you know how old it is?

About 20 years old.

It's still fairly new. Same as you? Yes, same as me. I'm 20.

It's looking a bit more tired than you are. I know!

Little bit.

Let's go inside and actually have a look, shall we? Yeah. Sure.

Let's go in. After you. Thank you.

DIY is a brand-new experience for Georgia

and now she's got the keys, she's daunted by the job ahead.

I didn't realise until I actually came in here

how much work it needed doing.

When it is finished, how do you see it?

Any particular ideas for how you want this space to be?

I haven't actually decided yet.

At the moment, I'm still looking through lots of magazines

and on the internet, trying to get lots of inspiration

and ideas from family and friends

and what I see on the TV.

Good for you. That's right.

It takes time, doesn't it? Exactly.

I've got to try and make it look really nice,

but at the same time I'm working within a budget.

And of course the property lends itself to extending later on.

Does it? OK. Yes, outside we've got a nice big garden area.

Right. So it'll be an opportunity when Georgia earns lots more money

and stops taking money from Dad,

to actually extend... Only kidding!

It's a question of extending the property out,

which would add to the value and also make the property

a lot, lot bigger. OK.

End-of-terraces are popular because there is often potential

to extend to the side and the back,

thus almost doubling the floor space.

A well-planned extension can add between 12 and 25%

on to the value of your home.

So this is your garden?

Yes. Tell me about where you want things.

I'm planning in a few years on having the extension,

which I'm going to have extended from here.

That'll give me another couple of good-sized rooms.

It would. Would you do double storey? Yeah.

Hopefully, if that was possible.

When a house is abandoned,

an overgrown garden can quickly turn into a jungle.

But there's great potential here for Georgia to create a retreat.

All the way up this bank the garden goes -

about 30 metres up -

and the plan is, hopefully by the end of this year,

I'll have it all cleared out and turfed over.

That's a big garden, then. It's a very, very big garden.

All overgrown at the moment with brambles and that kind of stuff.

Yeah. Obviously, I have all this space behind me as well.

Clearing the garden is a massive undertaking in itself,

and I'm curious as to the division of labour here

between father and daughter.

So who is actually going to be doing the work on the house?

I sort of tell Dad what I want done,

and if he can do it, he'll do it, and if not...

Within reason!

Have you got any DIY experience?

Anything you'll be rolling up your sleeves to do?

I'll probably be doing the painting.

Painting. That's very good of you.

When I've decided what colour. Right.

I am concerned that Georgia is taking a back seat

and leaving it all to Dad Tony.

Hopefully, taking her to see somebody else

who's successfully completed a renovation

will give her more confidence to get involved.

Well, what I want you to do is go and see another property,

one that has had a full renovation and been completed.

They've done quite a lot of work,

and they'll have some really good practical advice

on just what's involved in things like extensions

and more substantial work

that you may face soon, or you may leave till later on.

It would be really good to have that knowledge

as you progress forwards.

I think that sounds absolutely brilliant.

Sadly, not all of Britain's forgotten buildings

are rescued and brought back to life.

But local councils are taking action

and it's the job of empty property officers

to track these buildings down.

Since 2008, Matt Smith and his team at Birmingham City Council

have brought a staggering 1,300 empty homes back into use.

Today Matt's visiting a place

he thought was off his caseload for good.

But the neighbours are still unhappy that nothing's been done.

I don't think it'll be helping

any pride in the community,

which I think is something a lot of communities do lack.

And just having something like that lying around,

I think it just brings everybody down.

With so many empty properties in the country at the moment

and the housing crisis as it is, it's such a shame that all the houses

that are empty and run-down can't all be done up

and put back on the market, either sold or rented out.

This property's been empty for over 15 years.

It was previously owned by a housing association.

The new owner bought the property at auction

with a view to renovating it, bringing it back into use.

However, the building is still derelict,

just as it was when it was purchased in May 2010.

It's disappointing that the house is remaining

in such a dilapidated and empty state.

The house is in a desirable area

and has been targeted by squatters and trespassers.

As you can see, this is one of the worst houses

in the whole of the area. There are lots of reports

that people are getting inside the property,

so I'm going to have a look round the side.

I can see doors off already at the front.

These are the sort of properties which certainly drive me mad

and must drive the neighbours mad, because living next door to this

must be an absolute horrible nightmare, really.

The main reason for the visit today is checking security,

but also taking some notes and photographs

to take some enforcement action

and getting the property improved.

Matt immediately spots there's easy back access.

You've got all the fences at the front

to stop people getting in.

Then you've got a two-foot high wall which people can just step over.

The reports of people getting in -

this is obviously where people are getting inside.

There's another door here,

which, as you can already see, has been pulled off.

So again, it looks like they're getting inside the house.

They get inside the property from here.

So we need that door certainly securing up a lot better.

As I say, as much as the fences at the front of the property are doing a good job,

people are getting in around the side.

Photographs document the damage, so Matt can inform the owner and take the next step.

Today's visit's been a real eye-opener.

Looking at the property now, front, back and side,

there's lots of visual issues with the property.

You can see boards are hanging off doors,

off windows and that sort of thing.

Visually, the property is the worst in the area.

If the owner fails to take further action,

the council can step in and take ownership.

We need to do something about it

and compulsory purchase is quite often the only guarantee

the property will be brought back into use.

It's not just organisations who can save abandoned buildings.

Private owners can too.

So if you want to take on one of Britain's empty homes,

then contact your local empty property officer

or talk to local estate agents and auctioneers

about abandoned buildings in your area.

Across the UK, there are untold numbers of abandoned buildings

ready to be restored.

And with the right planning and imagination,

the results can be inspiring,

as Geoff and Dorothy Gibson have proved.

We had moved into a new-build house that we designed ourselves

and we'd been living there for six months

when Jack came home and said he'd seen his latest project.

My immediate feeling was...

I was absolutely horrified and my heart sank.

I just saw a great project and I thought,

"This is another challenge. Let's go for it."

The former barn, which was built in the 1850s,

stands at the junction of four farms

and is Grade II listed.

We then started talking to the farmer,

negotiating,

and in the end we agreed on a price for the property,

seven acres of land, with a lake at the back.

You could see through it. There were no sides.

There was just this big black cast-iron column in the middle.

It looked very much like the inside of an umbrella.

When the work started in earnest,

every part of the listed building had to be carefully fixed

or created from scratch.

We knew the roof had to be reinstated,

because it's a Grade II listed building.

It had to be reinstated as is -

the walls, the floors.

So we did have a bit of a blank canvas

as how we wanted it to progress forward.

As well as spending over ?300,000 on the renovation,

Geoff and Dorothy were extremely hands-on,

in a bid to keep costs down.

Coming home after work and working until all hours of the night-time...

Most weekends, we were working on it.

The planners were quite specific in how the exterior of the building

had to look.

It had to resemble a barn.

That was very important.

And they were also very specific about the type of windows

that we could have and where the windows were going to be

and the actual external cladding of the building also.

They were very definite about that,

which is why we have the timber cladding around the outside.

It's been a work in progress as far as the interior is concerned,

because as we got used to the property,

it then became clear what we were going to do with it internally.

As they approached the end of phase 1 of the project,

which was to get the barn habitable,

Geoff's plans started to expand.

We decided that I would like a garage, so...

The trouble is, being in the conservation part,

the planners said, "No, you can't build above ground",

so I said, "Can we build below ground?"

And they said, "Well, give us your proposals".

So I sketched out a garage and I thought,

"Well, if we're going to dig a hole, we might as well dig a big hole",

so as well as a garage, we decided to have an underground conservatory.

The access ramp that you drive down into the garage

and the conservatory, which is...

A great party room. A great party room.

We've then concentrated on doing the outside.

Again, it was just fields when we started,

so every tree, every plant has been put in by us.

We probably put in 500 trees around in the area.

The renovation took a total of four years

and with it firmly behind them, Geoff and Dorothy look back

with a sense of achievement.

I think it's a little bit like having a baby.

You go through the immense pain

and at the end of it, you have something to show for it.

And you forget...

Talking about it now is bringing it all back.

I cannot stress this too much -

the key to any people taking on a project of this nature

is in the planning stages,

not the first day that something is going to be built.

It's the lead-up that's so, so important.

I think we feel very proud of what we've done.

It's going to be here for a long time. It's a legacy.

It's a tribute to Geoff.

It's been a good experience.

I will want to build a final property

to retire into.

Yes, we're that old! That old!

Hopefully, I think that he may actually get other people,

commission other people, to do it.

I will supervise next time.

The minute that the keys are handed over,

I will walk into a completed, finished property.

The northwest of England is struggling

with an empty home epidemic.

The legacy of failed government schemes

has led to row upon row of terraces

boarded up and abandoned, creating wastelands

of our once-thriving industrial communities.

In Accrington, Place First is a partnership

between a developer and a housing association.

Backed by the local council, the scheme plans to resuscitate

five streets of terraced houses

that were once earmarked for demolition.

Martin Ellerby is going to give me a tour of the site.

Hi, Martin. I'm Joe. Hi, Joe. Nice to meet you.

Tell me about these buildings

and ultimately what the plan is here.

Well, we've got 89 empty terraced properties.

All of them are two up, two down terraces.

And clearly, in today's world, it's not very attractive to families.

So we decided from the outset that we want to work with the existing fabric of the buildings,

to work with the heritage of this town

and not knock things down and create new-build properties.

Place First plan to reconfigure the two-bed terraces

to create two, four and six-bedroom homes

that are more suited for modern family life.

They're going to knock neighbouring terraces together,

either three into two or two into one,

to create much larger properties.

It's really about preserving the heritage,

but actually recognising in the 21st century, we live a little bit differently.

We don't want compartmentalised Victorian spaces.

We want lots of natural light, flexible spaces,

plenty of storage space.

Again, which is something a lot of developers forget about in more affordable schemes. Yeah.

I'm having a look inside one of the existing terraces

to understand how they plan to modify the space.

Do you know what? From the outside,

I thought it would be a lot smaller in here.

This is actually not a bad size room, isn't it?

They're great spaces. How typical is this?

Is this what you're dealing with in quite a few of these properties?

I'd say this was typical, in that we've got a very boxy room here

and then on the second half of the house,

we've got another box, essentially.

So the house is divided down the middle. Typical Victorian layout.

And in most cases, we'll look to get rid of that

and actually create an open-plan arrangement,

which also allows more light to come into the house,

because you've got light coming in from both sides.

Yeah, open plan, so you can have a sitting area, a dining area,

the kitchen traditionally at the back, I suppose.

That's where the drainage is. And that will have it in one big space.

That's right. We're doing that on a large part of the properties,

but on the four-beds, for example,

which are more appealing to the larger families...

Larger families, that's more noise,

and open plan is great in some instances, but not all.

So on the larger properties,

we'll create two reception rooms.

So there will be one room that can be used for the kids,

playing with their toys and making the noise that they make.

And then having another room which can be a little bit quieter -

somewhere to do some homework for the kids

or just sit down and eat a family meal together.

The first phase of the development

will see 71 houses being brought back into use by 2014,

with a further 129 properties set to follow.

And keen to show local people just what they'll be getting,

work has started on the show homes.

What do we have here, then? Well, these are the handsome boys

of the street, really.

These are the double-fronted end properties

that front out onto this main road here.

The majority of the properties here on the ends tend to be a little bit bigger.

These would have been a slightly better quality home when these were originally built.

These may have been for the factory foremen rather than the general workers.

I see. This will be one of our first show properties.

We started on this just last week.

We just started clearing the site.

So these properties will take around 10 to 12 weeks to do.

Just as we're finishing off on this, we'll start on the main works

on one of the streets down here,

so we'll essentially be concurrently rolling on construction throughout the area.

Are you going to do it street by street?

Pretty much, yes, street by street.

First Place will rent the properties to local families.

We hope to have these homes ready for the first families to move in

around spring of next year.

So we're not hanging around.

Yeah. Already, what we're starting to see

is that people in the area are actually starting to do properties up now. Right.

Housing market renewal created a bit of a status quo.

People who owned property in the area,

who maybe even wanted to invest in their properties, wouldn't do it

because they could see there was no plan for the area. Yeah.

But now we're on site and we're starting to do things,

you walk around the area, you can see there are people

who are cleaning up the stone frontages on their buildings.

People are starting to get confidence already, even at this early stage. Wow!

This really is an incredibly bold and ambitious project

to release the full potential of these streets.

It's not just about one or two properties - it's about a large number of houses

and it goes beyond that. Really, it's about giving a community confidence again.

Growing it, making it a place where people want to live

and importantly, providing much-needed family housing in this area.

Back in Hastings, I'm with first-time buyer Georgia Pankhurst,

who, with the help of her dad Tony,

has just taken her first step on the property ladder.

They've bought a run-down end-of-terrace

and with the plans up in the air,

they want some advice on where to start

and whether to extend.

I'm going to introduce them to a couple who've done something very similar.

Right, guys. This is the place I want you to see.

You're probably thinking, "That doesn't look much like my house".

No. And it doesn't.

No! But keeping an open mind here,

I think there are more similarities here than first meet the eye when you turn up outside.

And also, the couple you're about to meet

have some really good experience. They've done some renovations,

they've built extensions. They know what they're talking about.

Hopefully, they'll have some good advice. Shall we say hello? Yeah! Let's do it.

When Edna and Alan Gardner from Polegate

were searching for their next home, they knew they wanted to find a house

to which they could add value.

We looked around and went to the estate agents, which you do,

and we came across this one. And it was winter at the time

and it had been empty for a little while.

We could see the potential of the place. It was big enough,

it had good-sized bedrooms.

It wasn't...for us, decoration-wise.

Like, it had a green bathroom, really green bathroom.

And a nasty brown kitchen.

Wallpaper was falling off the walls!

It was in a bad state.

A 1920s two-bedroom bungalow on a large plot,

it had great scope to extend.

We could see the potential

that we could actually get the three bedrooms in.

Basically, we had to strip all the back end of the property out,

so we could extend and put on a brand-new kitchen,

which is a nice-sized kitchen.

We also, into the space of the extension,

we then put in the new bathroom.

The new bedroom we put on was the old existing kitchen,

plus we had a very large garden,

whereas the garden we have here now is beautiful,

but is smaller than we had, so we feel it's a lot more manageable.

Edna and Alan lived here for 12 months

before starting any building work.

We took time to decide exactly what we needed.

We didn't just rush into it - "Oh, we want another bedroom.

"How will we put it on?"

We actually spent time considering how it would work best.

In fact, we drew up lots of different plans...

"Will that work? Will that work?"

..before we even got to the architect stage.

And taking the time to get it right has paid off tenfold

and left them very satisfied with the end result.

My favourite is my kitchen. I've never had a kitchen as big.

And the kitchen I had as I wanted it.

Best thing I ever did.

Absolutely brilliant. So my kitchen is what I love best.

I am in no doubt that advice and tips from these seasoned renovators

will be invaluable for a first-timer like Georgia

and give her the confidence she needs to take things forward.

Tell me what you took on here.

When you first found this property, what state was it in?

It was in very bad repair.

The outside was sound.

The inside was...the plaster was chipping off.

The wallpaper was hanging off onto the floor.

Edna and Alan built a single-storey extension

to create an open plan lounge/diner and a new kitchen

at a cost of ?50,000.

In your experience,

how do you make plans, and how do you decide what you want?

Georgia's just moved in. She knows she's got to do some key things for her to live there,

like get some sort of functional kitchen and bathroom in

and try and make it homely.

But beyond that, maybe some bigger plans - maybe extensions further down the line.

When did you work out what you wanted to do and how you wanted to do it?

We knew we wanted to make it a bit bigger.

So until we actually lived here for a while,

it was a job to say, "We can do this and we can do that."

Interesting. So you did live for a while and you thought about the space during that? Yes.

We lived with bare boards and a quick slap of paint here and there.

And...yes!

Do you think it was the right decision,

having the extension put on when you moved here?

Yes, because we actually had a year in the planning of it, anyway.

We lived here for a while. We then got the plans done.

So we had plenty of time to make sure we were doing what we really wanted

and could make any changes at any point

on the plans before we finally decided.

So would you say Georgia's quite right to get in quite soon,

live with the space and then think about how to extend in the future?

Definitely. Take your time in deciding

what you want to do,

because you do change your mind. Yeah!

I can understand and I can see where you're coming from about taking your time.

You will change your mind after a little while,

and of course what you've done

is cause yourself an awful lot of work in doing something,

only to change your mind a few weeks later.

And extra expense, if you suddenly think, "Oh, I really don't like that."

If you make a costly mistake,

it can cost you double the money.

In addition to extending, anther way to add value to a home

is to have a well-maintained garden.

And Alan and Edna have just that.

And I'm keen for Georgia to understand

the potential her own garden can offer her.

This garden... You did a brilliant job

to find a place with such a beautiful, manicured garden.

But it wasn't manicured when we arrived here, believe me!

What was it like? We had brambles from the house all the way down

to the fence at the bottom.

And I got the loppers out

and I went systematically, day by day, down the garden,

cutting the brambles out.

And when I got to where the new seat is by the fish pond,

I found a shed we didn't know was there!

You discovered a shed?!

The shed was covered in brambles.

Six by four shed.

Georgia's garden goes up on quite a steep slope

and it's covered over with loads and loads of brambles, trees, bushes, etc.

And until you can physically look in there, you don't know.

It's hard work and time.

Well done. Thank you. Thank you.

And all the best to you two. Thank you.

It seems Alan and Edna's achievements

have inspired Georgia.

Seeing this today has definitely given me lots of ideas on how I could have my garden

if I did clear it and sort it out.

And what about the advice? Has it been helpful coming here and meeting Edna and Alan?

Yeah, it's been really, really helpful

just to get an insight from other people who were in my position -

obviously bought their house and didn't know what to do with it.

Yeah, it's helped me quite a lot, actually.

Given me a lot of ideas. Good.

Well, look, it's a great opportunity to have your first property at 20.

Loads to do in it, but loads of possibilities as well,

so I hope the daunting nature of it is subsiding slightly

and you're just very excited about it. Definitely.

I wish you every luck in between trotting round the world.

Thank you. Coming home and making it the place you want. Thank you very much!

Well, I think today has been really useful for Georgia.

Some great practical advice from two very experienced renovators,

but also, it's been about potential -

showing just what you can achieve

when you start out with an empty property.

I'm sure if she takes all that on board,

she'll very soon have her perfect first home.

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