Enabling unit
The Enabling team are a business unit of the Somerset West Private Sector Housing Partnership. The unit is responsible for the delivery of the:
- Voluntary Landlord Accreditation Scheme
- Bringing Empty Properties back into use
- Energy Efficiency and fuel poverty
The unit was formed in early 2011. This was in anticipation of the current and future business environment and opportunities. Of the three Business Units in the structure, the Enabling Unit draws in the largest amount of external funding, and like the other Units the services provided by the team have direct synergies and links with each other.
The work of the Partnership is bound together through the over arching principles of the Private Sector Renewal Strategy and its associated sub strategies and policies.
The Enabling Unit is responsible for delivering Landlord Accreditation Scheme; bringing empty properties back into use and energy efficiency/fuel poverty.
- Voluntary Landlord Accreditation Scheme; A free service for landlords, encouraging them to bring their properties up to an accredited standard (Decent Homes standard) and to encourage good management.
- Empty Properties; Identifying empty properties and providing advice and where necessary financial assistance to the owners on bringing them back into use.
- Energy Efficiency; The service is tenure blind, providing advice on how to save energy and reduce fuel poverty for those who are vulnerable, and to assist with third party grants and loans to provide energy efficiency measures and renewables.