Over the last couple of years the government has been re-configuring its figures on empty homes as part of a wider review of housing statistics in particular. Between January and April 2012 the government consulted on future and recent changes to housing and land-use statistics and have reported on the outcome. As far as empty dwellings go, there are no changes proposed to what has already been implemented, but the report provides a useful summary of the current position and the issues that have been raised
Responses about vacant dwellings
62 respondents answered the questions on housing statistics, 48 (77%) being local authorities. The relevant text from the government's report reads as follows:
Section E
Fourteen (23%) respondents asked for data on vacant stock of all tenures, or private sector stock, to be included. Questions on all private sector and registered social landlord vacant properties were previously removed from the HSSA as part of the review that took place in 2008. This was because of alternative available data sources (e.g. the Tenant Services Authority data on housing association vacants) and the quality of the data reported in these questions on the HSSA was not consistently robust. The Government agrees that maintaining a data series on vacant stock is part of the core evidence base on housing. Annual Live Tables are published which bring together data from different sources to provide vacant dwellings at a local authority level. These are available at
http://www.communities.gov.uk/housing/housingresearch/housingstatistics/housingstatisticsby/stockincludingvacants/livetables/ (in particular Live Tables 611, 613 and 615). These tables will use the local authority owned and ‘other public sector’ vacant stock figures as reported through the new form. Figures on total vacant properties are taken from the Council Tax Base returns made by local authorities. These returns are signed off by the Chief Financial Officer and are subject to robust checks by the Department’s Local Government Finance Statistics team. The figures on long-term vacant dwellings (broadly those which have been vacant for more than six months) are used for the New Homes Bonus and are again put into the public domain for further comment/checking and revisions have been made where required in the last two years. Council Tax Base statistics are published through bi-annual statistical releases at
http://www.communities.gov.uk/localgovernment/localregional/localgovernmentfinance/statistics/counciltaxbase/ As total vacant stock estimates are available from other sources it would be a duplication of effort and burden to ask local authorities to also report this data and more than one data source may lead to confusion. Some respondents asked specifically for the question on private sector homes vacant for less than 6 months to be retained as this tenure breakdown is not available from existing sources and it can be a useful metric for performance benchmarking. Whilst some local authorities will have good quality information to report on private sector properties empty for 6 months or more, this is not the case for all. The quality of data reported in the HSSA has been variable, which very much limits its value for performance benchmarking, as well as for most other uses. The Department already does not collect data on the total (i.e. not only those empty for 6 months or more) number of private sector properties which are vacant, so the published tables described above do not provide figures specifically on the private sector, leaving the split of vacant dwellings figures by tenure incomplete. However this is mitigated for users of the data by the fact that the tables do show figures for the total number of vacant homes (regardless of tenure), and the figures for the local authority and housing association tenures. Local authorities may wish to collect and publish data on vacant private sector dwellings in their area, but the Government does not believe it is appropriate to require this reported centrally. Some respondents expressed concern over the potential interpretation of data on local authority vacant stock that are not available for letting. In some cases this will reflect stock that is awaiting demolition and may have been acquired to enable regeneration of an area. The coverage of these figures will be explained in footnotes to the data when it is published. End to regional reporting In a further section DCLG announces the inevitable end to regional statistics, confirmed by Eric Pickles in a statement to the House of Commons last week. We will cease publication of summary statistics by region in all Departmental statistics outputs published from October 2012 onwards where they would not cause a change to the pre-announced publication date. It will still be possible to piece together statistics based on the abolished regions by summing the figures for the relevant local authorities, but it is debatable whethr anyone will take the trouble to do so. It will be interesting to see the approach that Empty Homes (the campaigning charity) will take given that it has been the custodian of long-term figures on empty homes based on the HSSA returns, which did in previous years feature regional reporting. "Other Public Sector" nonsense continues The government will continue to rely on local authoriteis to collect statistics on Other Public Sector vacants, rather than requiring the public sector bodies in question to submit the information direct to it, as it surely has the power and obligation to do. Under current arrangements, staff at the hundreds of housing authorities face the frustrating and burdensome task of contacting all the public bodies in their areas to try and collect the information in question. (Even finding the person who knows the answer can prove a difficult challenge). Should a government ever emerge that makes its "other public sector bodies" provide the needed information we will know that it is serious about "lifting the burden" and serious about empty homes. Until then its commitment will understandably be seen as undermined by being all too willing to make progress on the basis of fighting to the last drop of local authorities' blood.
Fourteen (23%) respondents asked for data on vacant stock of all tenures, or private sector stock, to be included. Questions on all private sector and registered social landlord vacant properties were previously removed from the HSSA as part of the review that took place in 2008. This was because of alternative available data sources (e.g. the Tenant Services Authority data on housing association vacants) and the quality of the data reported in these questions on the HSSA was not consistently robust. The Government agrees that maintaining a data series on vacant stock is part of the core evidence base on housing. Annual Live Tables are published which bring together data from different sources to provide vacant dwellings at a local authority level. These are available at
http://www.communities.gov.uk/housing/housingresearch/housingstatistics/housingstatisticsby/stockincludingvacants/livetables/ (in particular Live Tables 611, 613 and 615). These tables will use the local authority owned and ‘other public sector’ vacant stock figures as reported through the new form. Figures on total vacant properties are taken from the Council Tax Base returns made by local authorities. These returns are signed off by the Chief Financial Officer and are subject to robust checks by the Department’s Local Government Finance Statistics team. The figures on long-term vacant dwellings (broadly those which have been vacant for more than six months) are used for the New Homes Bonus and are again put into the public domain for further comment/checking and revisions have been made where required in the last two years. Council Tax Base statistics are published through bi-annual statistical releases at
http://www.communities.gov.uk/localgovernment/localregional/localgovernmentfinance/statistics/counciltaxbase/ As total vacant stock estimates are available from other sources it would be a duplication of effort and burden to ask local authorities to also report this data and more than one data source may lead to confusion. Some respondents asked specifically for the question on private sector homes vacant for less than 6 months to be retained as this tenure breakdown is not available from existing sources and it can be a useful metric for performance benchmarking. Whilst some local authorities will have good quality information to report on private sector properties empty for 6 months or more, this is not the case for all. The quality of data reported in the HSSA has been variable, which very much limits its value for performance benchmarking, as well as for most other uses. The Department already does not collect data on the total (i.e. not only those empty for 6 months or more) number of private sector properties which are vacant, so the published tables described above do not provide figures specifically on the private sector, leaving the split of vacant dwellings figures by tenure incomplete. However this is mitigated for users of the data by the fact that the tables do show figures for the total number of vacant homes (regardless of tenure), and the figures for the local authority and housing association tenures. Local authorities may wish to collect and publish data on vacant private sector dwellings in their area, but the Government does not believe it is appropriate to require this reported centrally. Some respondents expressed concern over the potential interpretation of data on local authority vacant stock that are not available for letting. In some cases this will reflect stock that is awaiting demolition and may have been acquired to enable regeneration of an area. The coverage of these figures will be explained in footnotes to the data when it is published. End to regional reporting In a further section DCLG announces the inevitable end to regional statistics, confirmed by Eric Pickles in a statement to the House of Commons last week. We will cease publication of summary statistics by region in all Departmental statistics outputs published from October 2012 onwards where they would not cause a change to the pre-announced publication date. It will still be possible to piece together statistics based on the abolished regions by summing the figures for the relevant local authorities, but it is debatable whethr anyone will take the trouble to do so. It will be interesting to see the approach that Empty Homes (the campaigning charity) will take given that it has been the custodian of long-term figures on empty homes based on the HSSA returns, which did in previous years feature regional reporting. "Other Public Sector" nonsense continues The government will continue to rely on local authoriteis to collect statistics on Other Public Sector vacants, rather than requiring the public sector bodies in question to submit the information direct to it, as it surely has the power and obligation to do. Under current arrangements, staff at the hundreds of housing authorities face the frustrating and burdensome task of contacting all the public bodies in their areas to try and collect the information in question. (Even finding the person who knows the answer can prove a difficult challenge). Should a government ever emerge that makes its "other public sector bodies" provide the needed information we will know that it is serious about "lifting the burden" and serious about empty homes. Until then its commitment will understandably be seen as undermined by being all too willing to make progress on the basis of fighting to the last drop of local authorities' blood.