Leeds Empties: Helping bring 5,000 empty homes back into use

In 2010, Rob Greenland and Gill Coupland set up the community interest company Social Business Brokers with the aim of tackling complex social problems that public sector agencies alone are not able to address. Leeds Empties was born with the objective of bringing the estimated 5,000 empty homes in the city back into use through the Empty Homes Doctor service. Having received a £100,000 contract from Leeds City Council to run their service for 12 months from April 2013, Rob and Gill were keen to expand the offering into other markets.

Leeds Empties joined our Social Innovation Pioneers scheme in June 2013 and one of our first jobs was to examine its business processes and identify areas of efficiency as well as opportunities for greater impact that will contribute to building a sustainable business model. The organisation is going from strength to strength and, with our help, secured a further £100,000 from Leeds City Council to continue to provide the Empty Homes Doctor service, with an intention to continue the contract for a total of three years.

Leeds Empties is in talks with other Local Authority areas regarding replicating the model in other towns and cities.

“As a result of the work Deloitte carried out with Leeds Empties - including facilitating a meeting with the Empty Homes team at the council - Leeds City Council has recently signed a data sharing agreement with Leeds Empties that means we can contact owners directly - which we believe will result in an improved response rate.”

Rob Greenland, Co-director of Leeds Empties

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