DCLG's
revised Council Tax Base figures for 2013 show a significant reduction in the overall number of empty homes compared with 2012, according to Empty Homes Network analysis.
Changes in the CTB form, consequent upon the changes to council tax discounts and exemptions, mean the figures between the two years are not readily comparable but our analysis shows the following.
- The total number of empties in September 2012 (CTB return) was 704,357. This figure combines all the relevant exemption classes (including the abolished classes A and C) plus long-term empties.
- The comparable figure for September 2013 was 635,127 - a reduction of 69,230 in the total number of empties.
- A the same time, the New Homes Bonus awarded based on the change in long-term empties was 38,009.
- Thus the balance of the difference that needs to be explained would be 31,221.
The removal of exemption classes A (uninhabitable, undergoing works for up to 1 year) and C (6 month unfurnished empty) would have removed 311,486 exempt properties, but the actual reduction was only 295, 493. Most of the difference seem to be old Category C properties that were shifted to Category B (ie unoccupied homes owned by charities - up to 6 months). Class B figures increased by nearly 17,000.
With Exemption Class A, it was not possible to know whether the property would have been empty for over or under 6 months. But logically, more would have been empty for under 6 months than over as some would be brought back into use before the full year was up. Given that some of the previously exempt Class A's would have been empty for over 6 months, the actual reduction in long-term empties can assumed to have been higher than the 38,009 that received a New Homes Bonus reward.
The number of occupied homes receiving various single person discounts and the like actually went down; so too did the number of second homes. But with over 7millio single-person discount homes it might be that previously empty homes were reclassified as single-person discount whilst demographic factors reduced the underlying number even more i.e. one trend could hide another.
One way or another, there is a continuing decline in the reported number of empties but the complexities of data collection and the drivers to under-record empties (empty homes premium; New Homes Bonus) do not inspire confidence that the real figures are reducing on a comparable scale.
The EHN analysis of figures is
available in our library for full members only.
