Falkirk Council's Empty Homes Officer, Elaine Hall, has been recognised with an Outstanding Individual Award at this year's Scottish Empty Homes Awards.

The awards recognise and celebrate the outstanding work and achievements of individuals and organisations in reviving empty homes across Scotland.

Elaine, from Grangemouth, joined the Council in 1984 and has been part of the empty homes team since 2016. In that time, along with colleague Wendy Laird, has helped bring 247 properties back into use.

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A property can lie empty for a wide variety of reasons including the homeowner moving into residential care, bereavement or repossession, and Elaine is kept on her toes finding different solutions and approaches to help bring these homes back into use.

Juggling a caseload of between 75 – 90 properties, she is well known across the Council working with colleagues in planning, building standards, legal, criminal justice, social work, and council tax.

Elaine said: "I love my job and consider myself to be very lucky so to receive national recognition is icing on the cake!

"Although it's rewarding, working with homeowners to bring their properties back into use can bring many challenges as there's a human story behind every empty home - some very sad, some funny and others frustrating.

"Knowing my role helps increase housing availability for local people and in turn improves safety and pride in our communities makes it worthwhile."