Simon Eden and Caroline Matthews Britain's Empty Homes

Across the country, empty properties that could be homes are just 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.

Along the way, I'll do some digging of my own to find out more about our housing stock, our heritage

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

Finding a vacant property at the right price in the right area is only half the battle.

Once you've got your hands on an empty shell, the real work begins

because pulling an empty property back from the brink can be a real labour of love.

'On today's show, a couple from Sussex who have got big plans to transform an empty property

'into a dual-purpose building - a home and a business.'

We're putting our life savings into doing it up, so if it fails, then we'll be in serious trouble.

'An innovative group of artists who are turning disused warehouses into live-work spaces.'

It was a bit like a war zone. There were people doing very dodgy things down here.

A sort of area people wouldn't want to walk down.

'And an Empty Property Officer on a mission to get derelict buildings lived in again.'

It's been empty for so long, so I'm really excited about seeing it.

'Hairdressers Simon Eden and Caroline Matthews had long aspired

'to live in the seaside town of Brighton

'and a chance meeting with a property developer led them to their dream premises there.'

He came in for a haircut

and I was just discussing how there was a lot of empty commercial properties,

then suddenly he went, "I'm a property developer and I've got several properties I want to sell."

'So the ambitious hairdressers took him up on his offer

'and found an empty property in an up-and-coming part of Brighton that ticked all the boxes

'with both a work space for a hair salon and a living space above.'

To take on an empty property is really nice and it's an opportunity to make the area better.

I'm really passionate about that and making sure we can do something a bit better for the environment.

'With the ground floor of the building set to be their business,

'Simon and Caroline need to complete the salon quickly, so they can earn money,

'but when they got started, structural problems appeared.'

I knew this was going to be the biggest problem that we'd done.

When the cracks started to appear, I thought to myself,

"Perhaps this is a bit bigger than we budgeted for

"and maybe we haven't got the skills to go forward with it."

'By the time Simon and Caroline realised the true state of the building,

'they had already spent ?308,000 buying the premises, but they've got to make this work.'

At stake is our life savings.

I've sold both my businesses, barber shops, to buy this premises

and we're putting our life savings into doing it up,

so if it fails, then we'll be in serious trouble.

'Simon and Caroline are ready to overhaul the building

'that will house their business and provide their dream Brighton home.

'Hopefully, I can help them figure out their next step in the process.'

I'm Joe. Caroline, nice to meet you. Simon, how are you? Fine, thank you.

Tell me about your property. Three floors and a basement. Wow, four levels!

Yeah. What's the history of it? What sort of period does it date back to?

Probably about 1800. Yeah?

How long has it been empty? Do you know? A few months. How exciting!

You've got the keys and scaffolding up. Shall we look at what you've been doing? Yeah.

'Simon and Caroline have put everything on the line to fulfil this dream,

'having sold two other properties and used their entire life savings,

'but they're brimming with ideas and plans are under way.'

This is a great space. What's the big dream here?

The overall dream is to have a salon which we can live above,

so we won't have to go so far to work in the morning.

A live-work space. This would be the salon, would it? Yeah.

What do you want to do with it? Is it big enough for a salon? I don't know how salons work.

We'll have to take the chimneys out, otherwise we couldn't manage to fit it all in.

You want this all to be open-plan.

So you've got to get rid of these supports and have some steelwork in.

Did you know that when you took the place on? Was that a surprise?

It was a bit of a surprise, yes. We didn't know that steelwork was going to be necessary.

'But that wasn't the only problem.

'The walls were made from some unusual material specific to the Brighton area.'

We found the bungaroosh walls are not quite as good as they were when they were put up.

You've got bungaroosh here? Yeah.

That's stripped down the back? That's a good example. It's a funny material.

It's basically lime pressed in with anything they could find,

stones or flint from the Downs or broken bricks. Is that what you're seeing here?

It seems to be layers of flint built up between brick piers. Yeah.

Tell me about your experience. Is this the only kind of project like this you've taken on?

This project is not our first project,

but our other stuff's been more like decorating compared to this.

What's the scariest bit about creating a salon?

Getting things in the right place because once they're there, you can't move them

and you need enough space for you and your client. You don't want to feel cramped at all.

'With plans afoot to reconfigure the ground floor into a hair salon,

'they need to turn their attention to the living space upstairs.'

This floor and the floor above, this is going to be your home,

a two-storey flat effectively? Yeah.

How will it be laid out? This will still be the living room.

We'll knock through this wall and have a big, open-plan living room and kitchen.

Then upstairs, you've got two bedrooms? Yeah.

One's really big, so we're thinking that we can have an en-suite

or perhaps split the upstairs into a bathroom and two bedrooms. Wow!

That's quite a lot to take on, isn't it? Yeah.

We walked past a bath in the corridor. That's presumably not plumbed in? It is plumbed in.

We've got to use the bath there. It's the only place we've got to wash.

Wow! That's quite open-plan bathing.

Do you need permission to turn it into a salon or to live up here?

Yeah, we did have to change it.

Yeah, we had to get a "change of use" on the office part to make it residential again

and permission to remove the chimneys as well.

How quickly do you hope... Realistically, how long do you think it will take you to do this?

I think probably at least six months, maybe more.

Six months for the salon or for the whole project? The salon.

Do you like to work to a budget or do you prefer not to have a budget?

I'd like to stick to our budget and get as much work done as possible for 50,000.

It seems quite tight to me, 50,000. It is.

That's why we're doing quite a lot of the work ourselves to save money.

Have you got experience in doing this kind of thing?

I worked as a builder when I was younger, so I have a bit of hands-on experience. OK.

'Even with Simon's experience, a renovation on this scale,

'encompassing a two-bedroom, split-level flat and a business premises all on such a tight budget,

'is not for the faint-hearted.'

Guys, you've got a huge amount ahead of you, but what are your key concerns?

Not letting the project drag out,

not letting the builders run behind,

making sure they turn up when they say they will and sticking to budget.

It will be good to meet another couple who have been through this.

They haven't taken on a salon, that's a specific challenge for you,

but they have renovated a period property, so they can answer lots of these problems

about how you get the look and feel right, how you balance the heritage with the modern use of a property,

but also how you project-manage, how you keep things ticking along, keep it within budget,

and, most importantly for your salon, on time as well.

Does that sound useful? Great. Fantastic. Brilliant.

Buildings of all kinds can become unoccupied and empty for many different reasons.

With hundreds of thousands left vacant across the country, it's the job of Empty Property Officers

to bring them back into use.

That's just what Andy Emerson does for Thanet Council in Kent.

He and the team restore around 120 properties a year

and he's on his way to visit his latest project.

Today, I'm going to visit a property which has been empty for over a year.

The landlord at the time fell into financial difficulty and he decided to sell it

and the council actually bought the property at auction.

It was reported to us by the Margate Task Force as being empty for over a year,

so we decided to purchase it for the Margate Housing Intervention Project.

Before it was abandoned, this late Victorian era terrace had been divided into 13 bedsits.

Now the council has big plans to revive the building and create more social housing.

I'm visiting the property because we've started work on the site.

The demolition people are stripping it out. Work's going really well.

I'm meeting our surveyor Matt who's bringing the plans.

We can discuss what the proposals are for the level of accommodation.

It's fantastic to see what's going on here.

It's been empty for so long, so I'm really excited about seeing it.

Matt, the surveyor, has drawn up ambitious plans to transform the dilapidated five-storey house

into three high-end flats, but it's still early days for this project.

We've started the structural demolition. The soft strip's in progress. It's enabled us

to see that there are some issues that we need to deal with, one of which is just located behind you,

that we need the structural engineer to have a look at.

There's quite a lot of load acting on that lintel, so it's something we need to get assessed,

get some temporary support. Yeah, pretty quickly.

What's the condition of the roof, now it's stripped out? I can see that some areas don't look too good.

No, they don't, to be honest, Andy.

It's quite clear that there's been some water penetration up in the roof,

so it's a fair indication that the coverings aren't in particularly good condition.

When we come over to the main walls as well,

there's a lot of movement as well, so we need to sort of get that addressed.

With an abandoned building of this period and size,

there can be structural problems inside,

but it's also essential that Matt identifies and resolves the exterior issues too.

It's obviously allowed us to look a bit more closely at the structure again.

Unfortunately, there's a number of issues that we need to address. Yes.

Andy is pleased with the progress.

Even so, the building will stay on his books for quite some time.

That was very positive. It won't be my last visit to the property.

I'll come back once the contractors start on site properly

and obviously keep an update as to how they're going on site.

If you wish to find an empty property, there are many ways to pick one up.

You could ask around friends and family, contact estate agents and auctioneers

to keep abreast of run-down buildings in the area or contact your local Empty Property Officer.

It's not just councils and organisations who are rejuvenating our forgotten houses.

Countless numbers of people in the UK are finding ways of bringing abandoned buildings back to life

and, in turn, this has a positive impact on the local area.

In Yorkshire, Robin Peart and his wife Michelle were struggling to find the perfect house

that they could renovate and turn into an eco-friendly home

until a visit to Robin's parents' house sparked an idea.

We were in the garden here and I was looking at the outbuilding.

I thought, "Perhaps we could live in there!"

So they took a leap of faith and asked Robin's parents if they could turn the abandoned chicken shed

into their dream eco-home.

We didn't know how my mum and dad would react to us... Living in their garden, basically.

This is what we do. We're living in their garden.

They just had no problems at all. No. They thought, "Yeah, great idea."

They realised straight away that it would be a very good idea.

With that agreed, next they discussed the price.

They sold it to us for ?1. That's right. With a slight bit of land.

The garden divided off, so we could own half the garden.

Clearly, the chicken shed was never intended to be a domestic dwelling

and the building lies in a conservation area and borders a national park.

All these factors combined meant Robin and Michelle spent five years gaining planning permission.

We had to jump through hoops to get the permission to do it

and one of them was we had to sell it.

We had to advertise it for sale for six months to make sure

that no-one wanted to buy the property to be used for agricultural purposes.

It had to be just for agricultural use.

I'd get a phone call every week from the estate agent saying,

"Somebody's interested in buying your outbuilding."

I'm like, "No!" I'd say, "What have they got?"

They'd say this, that and the other. "It's not agricultural, so it's fine."

With the necessary paperwork complete, the couple went on to spend ?220,000 on the project

with Michelle managing on site every day.

It took seven months from start to finish.

They started in the May of 2010 and they finished in the December.

We moved in. We didn't have the under-floor on. It was minus 15. It was really cold.

We were sat on the sofa with our duvets on thinking, "Oh, dear..."

But anyway, it got there eventually.

The stove was fitted in time for Christmas Day. Yeah.

We both wanted to do an eco-house.

We both wanted to do as many eco-features as we could afford within the budget.

That was from the off, wasn't it? It was straight from the off. Yeah.

That's what we wanted to do. We didn't have a great deal of money, so we had to do it as cheap as possible.

With the trials and tribulations of the renovation behind them,

Michelle and Robin can enjoy the fruits of their labour.

There were some frustrating times,

but we still realised that it would make a fantastic end result.

It just feels so nice and homely. It does.

We would never have been in a place like this

if we hadn't had the opportunity to buy it for ?1 and convert it.

And your determination to see it through. My determination, yeah.

Different shapes and sizes of empty properties have different potential.

Some are great for living, some are great for working, some are great for both.

'According to the Live Work Network, over 2.5 million Britons now work and live in the same space.

'I've come to Forest Hill, South London, to meet sculptor Jeff Lowe,

'a passionate advocate of sympathetically converting derelict buildings into live-work spaces.

'20 years ago, he led by example,

'turning a derelict street into 12 live-work units.'

Jeff, really nice to meet you. It's a lovely mews here. When were the buildings first built?

Some of the buildings date back to about 1860.

The original one that I first bought was actually an original coach house and stables underneath,

so it had a blacksmith's there.

The one next to it, which was the next one that I bought, similar sort of use.

When you first came cross this mews 20 years ago...? Just over 20 years.

What sort of state was this mews and the area in?

It was a bit like a war zone. There were people doing very dodgy things down here. There was no lighting.

A sort of area that people wouldn't want to walk down. What attracted you to this derelict street?

What could you see that others couldn't? Living and working in the same building attracted me.

And just the space. I'd spent time in New York. I'd had exhibitions.

I could see that people lived in warehouse spaces very successfully.

And artists here, no-one had heard of it, live-work.

So I approached Lewisham Planning Department

and said, "What about me having planning permission to live and work in this building in Havelock Walk?"

They initially said, "No way." They just didn't get it.

'Even as the future use of the premises hung in the balance,

'Jeff forged ahead with restoring the mews.

'Soon after, the street became part of the Forest Hill Conservation Area

'and after a change in the council's attitude, Jeff received permission to live and work in the mews.'

If all this hadn't happened, what would have become of the buildings?

A developer would have come along, knocked it all down

and would have built the usual, bog-standard mews-style development,

very small, cram in as much as you can into the space.

What's interesting is if I was to compare what's happened in Havelock Walk

with what I'm now trying to do in Brockley.

There's a 20-year gap between the two, but it's just interesting how things have changed.

That's happening now in Brockley? Absolutely. Can we take a look? Yes.

'Having already sparked a full street revival in Havelock Walk,

'Jeff and some other artists are in the throes of doing the same again in another part of South London.'

So this is Ashby Mews.

My son, about three years ago, contacted me about a workshop here

when I was looking for a much bigger studio.

As soon as I saw this workshop,

I realised that it was the perfect space.

It's huge. It's massive.

It's so rare to find anything with this light and everything like that.

'Also embarking on a live-work renovation is local artist Erica

'whose building is right next door to Jeff's.'

Erica, tell me what you do and why this building that you've taken on was so attractive.

I'm a glass artist

and this building is going to allow me to not only live here with my husband,

but have an amazing workshop.

That doesn't give you a huge pressure in terms of "I can't escape work"? No, not at all.

You like being saturated? Yeah, completely because I don't work nine to five.

'Erica is at the beginning of the process and has a clear plan to maximise the warehouse space.'

On the top floor, you step up into the bedrooms which are above...

Living space is raised up, work space is very much on the ground floor? Yes. Very functional? Yeah.

How exciting is it that little creative buildings are popping up around you? Is that important?

Yeah, really important. Brockley is quite an artists' community.

There's quite a few artists that work here.

I've lived here for many years and they've developed an artists' community

and I'm excited about getting involved in that and doing some joint shows, that type of thing.

I'm pleased it's worked out so well. Best of luck. Thank you. A bit of building work to go.

I find what's happening here very inspiring.

It can be difficult enough to renovate an individual empty property,

but to renovate a whole street to create this creative community from scratch really is something special.

Jeff has shown it can work in Forest Hill. You can feel the same energy here in Brockley

and it's a great model for brownfield sites in London and for cities and towns across the country.

'Back in East Sussex, I'm with hairdressers Simon and Caroline

'who bought a run-down, dual-purpose building, combining space for a hair salon on the ground floor

'with a two-storey flat above.

'I'll introduce them to a lady who has also completely modernised a similar period property

'to a very tight schedule.'

This is the place I want to show you, a red-brick, Victorian terrace.

Pretty big. First impressions? It doesn't look like it's had much work done on the outside. Very good.

Exactly. It's had a full renovation,

but what hasn't really been touched is the outside, so it's slightly misleading.

We'll meet Alex and Richard. Alex owns the property, but she's also an interior designer,

so hopefully, lots of inspiration there, and Richard is the builder.

He specialises in period properties like this, like yours and I think he'll have some good advice.

Shall we go and say hello? Yeah.

'Alex Legendre from Shoreham in East Sussex bought this run-down, Victorian house in 2012

'and she's completed phase one of her renovation - the interior.'

I wanted a property that I could get my teeth into.

I needed something that I could really push myself, push my boundaries, get physical

and get into it and really feel like I'd really done it myself.

It was just a bit of a personal mission, I think.

'Despite the fact that the house had been empty for some time and was in serious disrepair,

'interiors enthusiast Alex immediately saw straight past the decrepit facade.'

The craziest thing about finding this property was walking in,

everything was painted dark brown, original wallpaper 100 years old, and I fell in love completely.

I just saw what I could do, what it was going to look like, how the light was going to fall.

Everything it is now is how I envisaged it on the first day.

'And this love was further enhanced when Alex learned more about the previous owner.'

The guy that I bought the house from has lived here all of his life and was born upstairs.

He's 103 and now in a nursing home and still going strong.

His parents bought this house, I think, 105 years ago.

It was built 123 years ago

and he lived here all of his life.

I feel like this house was kind of brought back to life,

so I think to kind of fill it with people again is brilliant.

I love it. I couldn't be happier.

'Alex bought this semi-detached house for just under ?275,000

'and worked to a tight schedule and budget,

'but she insists she couldn't have done it without her trusted builder Richard who has come along

'to offer his advice to Simon and Caroline.'

Walking into this space is incredible. You don't have a clue what awaits as soon as you step in.

What problems does that lead to?

These guys are taking on a building that hasn't been modernised or brought forward.

What sort of things do you come up against in that situation with a period property?

I think we were really lucky because everything was so untouched

that once you removed it, there wasn't anything else.

The main problem these guys are up against is there will be different eras where they've added to it

and they'll have to uncover other people's mistakes in covering things up.

You want to be as eco-friendly as possible and part of that is using reclaimed materials

and second-hand bits and bobs, so looking around, is this a similar style to what you're envisaging?

Similar, yeah. It's really nice that everything ties in.

It's the consistency here? Yeah. I think that's a compliment.

Consistency and everything looking in place. It's consistent. There's nothing new in here at all.

Everything's reclaimed and reused.

In terms of these guys, bungaroosh is in the building. How do you look after and maintain that?

You have to be careful with bungaroosh.

The main strength of the wall comes from the outside coating, the renders.

Do you know if it's a cement-based or lime-based render? I think it's cement-based.

That's why it's cracking. It's moving at a different time to the wall which is much softer.

'As a keen interior designer, Alex spent years gathering furniture,

'as well as the knowledge she needed to confidently project-manage such a big renovation.'

This is quite unique. Very simple, but beautifully simple. Was that the idea?

I think budget was the idea. There wasn't a lot of budget.

I always wanted just that space that you can hang out in and cook.

Simon, you're looking to knock through and have an open space with dining and the kitchen.

Yeah, similar reason, really.

Yeah. Let's talk about schedule.

Am I right in thinking you carried out this project in a ridiculously short space of time?

Yes, just a little bit. It was... How long?

Eight weeks. Eight weeks? Pretty much. How?

Planning. Planning and just being...

Because I was really involved, there wasn't a day when I wasn't on site

and there wasn't a day when anything was going on here that I wasn't part of it,

so I kind of physically could oversee everything

because I was the main labourer.

This is exactly the role you want to take on. Yeah.

Project-managing, being on site and labouring to speed things up. Yeah.

And looking at budgets, what did you think you could do a renovation like this for

and what did it end up costing you?

I think I was a little bit naive when I...

Richard's smiling right now.

When I first bought it, I had a notion that I was going to do it for about 10,000 to 12,000,

but that was very whimsical and I was just thinking about decoration, really.

I was kind of going by everything that I thought I could afford,

so I've had to borrow a bit more and I've spent about 22,000.

But the estimate for the renovation was 50, so I got off very lightly.

Yeah, that's staggering.

Really great advice and a wonderful property.

It's been a real treat to look round it, so thank you very much. Thanks.

What did you make of that? It was beautiful, really interesting

and great to see all the inspiration that she's had and the things that she's reused.

Yeah, it's just really beautiful.

Was that the most important bit for you, the design, the concept, the inspiration?

Yeah, I've got to find where we're going with things and start collecting things,

so, yeah, it's really helped.

Simon, what did you find most useful? To just get a bit of advice on how to take the project forward.

The fact that if I put the hours in myself, I can save a lot of money.

I think that's key, isn't it? This actually was done for a very reasonable amount of money.

Alex was saying, "To do that, I just had to work very hard," and you're prepared to do that as well.

Yeah. Did you get the sense that planning is key?

That's how they managed to stay on top of this, do it quickly and make it affordable. Yeah.

I think we'll have to put a bit of time into that planning.

Is that the next thing to tackle, to keep going over the plans?

Yeah. Get written down what's in our head.

I hope today's been useful, some very pertinent advice there.

And fingers crossed, if you keep working hard,

before long, that first haircut will happen in your brand-new salon. Very good luck.

It really has been a pleasure to see this place.

There was some great advice on how to work on a period property using sympathetic materials

and how also to get the work done quickly, yet keep costs down.

Those details will be key for Simon and Caroline as they plough forward,

but fingers crossed, if all goes well, very soon they'll have their dream home and their perfect salon.

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