Members of Parliament, Peers and housing organisations have called for the government to bring a quarter of a million long-term empty homes back into use.
There are 265,000 homes in England that have been vacant for over six months, and at the same time over 123,000 households live in expensive temporary accommodation funded through local councils.
The letter followed a parliamentary roundtable on empty homes chaired by Paula Barker MP.
The group identified five actions the government can easily take:
- Increase Affordable Homes Programme (AHP) flexibility to enable a greater portion of the funding to be used to bring empty homes back into use – currently this is limited to 10% outside of London.
- Reform Empty Homes Dwelling Management Orders (EDMOs) so that councils can use them to address empty homes after six months rather than two years.
- Introduce a national empty homes strategy, including a contribution to 1.5 million housing target.
- Establish a statutory duty for councils to undertake empty homes work.
- Reform probate to end the situation whereby some properties are exempted from the Empty Homes Premium – an additional tax councils can charge on empty properties – indefinitely.
Paula Barker MP said: “It is not right that so many properties are sitting empty when so many families are in desperate need of a home.
“We are urging the government to drive action on empty homes as part of its long-term housing plans. This will enable more households to be supported into a secure home sooner.”
The parliamentary roundtable was supported by the housing not-for-profit Capital Letters and homelessness charity Crisis.
The letter has been signed by 19 MPs and Peers and organisations, including The Empty Homes Network and Action on Empty Homes.