A WOMAN who bought her house for just one pound says she loves it despite others saying it’s a terrible place to live.
In 2013, terraced houses on the outskirts of Stoke-on-Trent attracted international attention when they were sold for an incredible £1 each.
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Stoke-on-Trent City Council sold 33 properties with buyers taking out £30,000 loans from the local authority to do them up.
Anna Francis, 44, was one buyer who got her hands on a budget home and moved in during the first phase of the scheme.
Anna says when she first arrived the house next to her was boarded up – and one over the road was burned out.
Speaking to Stoke-on-Trent Live she said: “There were lots of boarded-up properties and even when we moved in, which was eight years ago now, my next door neighbour’s house was boarded up, across the road was a burnt out property. Around us there were lots of derelict properties.
“In 2013, because all of the boarded-up houses, because the infrastructure had been removed, it was really quite bad in this area for fly-tipping, crime, anti-social behaviour and a lot of drug dealing.”
Anna added: “Because the houses were due to be demolished they were emptied out. It was an empty shell, no electric, no plumbing, they had to put all of that back in most of the properties.
“When I saw my house the first time, I couldn’t go up the stairs because whoever had it before, had knocked the walls through and it was just a bare staircase going up to an illegal loft conversion, there were big holes in the roof.”
The £1 project was launched after a planned renovation scheme to clear the houses and replace them with new homes was scrapped.
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Properties had been left boarded up and families raised concerns the neighbourhood was becoming a magnet for anti-social behaviour.
It was hoped that by selling the homes for a £1 to genuine buyers, it would stop the number of absentee landlords operating in the neighbourhood and clamp down on trouble.
Anna now says the area is looking much better.
She said: “What has been really positive is that as a result of the one-pound home scheme it encouraged other absentee landlords to sell the properties, and people who hadn’t been looking after their properties to do them up.
“For the council, they saw the scheme as pretty successful in terms of their aims for the project. I think it’s been quite slow but we’re slowly seeing an improvement in how the street looks.
“We’ve still got a burnt out one which has been a really bad problem. I think it was burnt in 2018, it’s an eyesore and attracts anti-social behaviour.
“One of the residual problems in the neighbourhood is that there are absentee landlords with problem properties. Also some of the letting agents are not very scrupulous. In some of the properties, people are living in quite a poor condition.”
Rebecca Davies, 37, also bought a £1 property but moved in earlier this year as part of the second phase.
She said: “I think it’s a shame that as a tenant you have very little rights. I think if that was addressed, we would definitely have a lot less issues in this neighbourhood.
“I rented since I was eighteen and so many of the flats and houses had things like damp with letting agents that didn’t seem to care. I was just exhausted and actually it becomes really demoralising.
The real cost of renovating £1 homes
While the houses were sold for £1, it was not exactly the total cost
- The new owners took out 10-year loans for £30,000 to pay the council back for the work.
- The work was done by Kier Stoke, who conduct repairs and home improvements for more than 19,000 council properties.
- The company said it has employed 20 local subcontractors to carry out renovations.
- These houses were originally going to be demolished and the area redeveloped until the government’s £1bn national Pathfinder programme scheme was scrapped in 2010.
- In 2017, the latest project involved privately-owned houses with the council spending £1.5 million to buy the empty properties from absentee landlords and then refurbishing them.
- Buyers would then typically take out a £60,000 loan to be repaid over 15 years before then becoming the outright owner of the property.
“When I moved in, my house was done to a livable standard. It was in a good basic condition. Since I’ve moved in I’ve decorated and made it homely. On paper it’s a really brilliant scheme and I was really interested in the fact that these are really lovely terraced houses.”
Rebecca says she is enjoying living in the area. She said: “The street I’m living on is very neighbourly. Everyone’s aware that this is a challenging area, there’s a lot of anti-social behaviour.”
Anna and Rebecca started a community interest company together called the Portland Inn Project in 2016 after realising a community needed more than just buildings.
Anna, an associate professor at Staffordshire University, says the next step is to take on the vacant Portland Inn pub.
She said: “We’ve been working since 2016 to try and take over the pub.
“Though the city council’s aim with the housing scheme was about the buildings, we recognised that the bits in between the buildings are what make a community thrive.
“Having a space where you can get to know the neighbours, learn new skills and be able to decide for yourself, what you want in terms of positive change to your neighbourhood, we saw that as a bit of a missing role.
“Because this area had been marked for demolition as part of the Path Finder scheme, they thought it was condemned and thought it was all going to be lost.”
Rebecca is pleased with how the Portland Inn Project is bringing people together.
She said: “I feel like we’re getting there and that’s becoming very clear. We’ve got more and more support from the council on addressing the issues in the area.
“There’s still work to be done, but as a resident, I’m really enjoying living here. Having moved here after lockdowns, it’s been really nice to feel part of the community.”
Anna added: “Things have improved. The kids never used to pay on this green space before, now we have a summer programme and they’re here for four weeks in the summer.
“They’ve really occupied this space and we’ve seen an improvement on issues like drug dealing.
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This post first appeared on thesun.co.uk
