With the election only a few days away and all the manifestos now published, this is a good time for a brief look at policy proposals connected to bringing empty property back into use for housing.
Perhaps surprisingly, the Labour Party manifesto does not mention the issue at all, although it refers to prioritising brownfield sites. The commitment to use the Homes and Communities Agency as the 'delivery body' for housing will sound as much like a threat as a promise to some of the practitioners who were closely involved in the 2011-15 Empty Homes Programme. Considering that housing was supposed to be the number one policy priority for Labour, the absence from the manifesto of policies to address the issue of empty property is disappointing.
Still, at least it is an upbeat document, whereas the front cover of the Conservative Manifesto looks like an invitation to a funeral. The inside features page after page of uninspiring prose, laid out by a designer who must have been on a contract featuring a zero-creativity clause. The sub-text would appear to be that the election is already won so who cares about the manifesto? The ponderous affair lumbers to a close without any appearance of the words 'empty' or 'vacant' .
The main crumb of comfort in these manifestos from the Big Two parties is that they both indicate a desire to make compulsory purchase an easier route to follow, and in the case of Labour the commitment is placed in the context of 'regeneration' which does hold some promise for empty homes work at the hard end.
The Lib-Dem manifesto includes the commitment to allow councils to charge up to 200% council tax on second homes and on "'buy-to-leave' investments from overseas" - but not (by implication but perhaps not by intention) any home-grown buy-to-leave investors or long-term empties. If the latter were omitted, this would continue to place England at a disadvantage compared with Scotland and Wales, whichhave both implemented Empty Homes Premium at up to 100% of normal council tax. Equalising the council tax on long-term empties and second homes is one of the Empty Homes Network policy asks, so that is suggestion to be welcomed. But it is a long way short of a coherent initiative.
The Green Party seems to have a whole series of manifestos including in multiple formats such as braille and British Sign Language, which show a welcome commitment to addressing issues of diversity. The main manifesto - dubbed the 'Green Guarantee' - is a fair bit shorter than the offerings mentioned previously. Even so the brief section on Housing promises
Action on empty homes to bring them back into use and a trial of a Land Value Tax to encourage the use of vacant land and reduce speculation.
Vague though it is, that's a promise that could be expected to translate into some serious action, in the context of a manifesto as radical as this.
The UKIP manifesto includes the promise to
Access low interest government loans to buy up and renovate poor housing stock or empty commercial properties, to create quality residential accommodation.
This is also an EHN policy ask, but UKIP seem to have restricted it to 'coastal enterprise zones' only, and the proposal sits in a section of the manifesto dedicated to the problems of coastal towns: there is nothing about empties in the section on housing itself, which puts all its eggs in the basket of factory-built modular homes - newbuild is the only game in town.
The SNP manifesto has little to say about housing policy - devoluton means the former is already substantially under Scottish control and therefore Westminister electons have little relevance to it. The main thrust of the manifesto is to show how SNP MPs at Westminster are fightling Scotland's corner and to highlight what the SNP has achieved in government in Scotland. It is perhaps surprising, in that context, that no mention is made of Shelter Scotland's inspiring Empty Homes Partnership.
Similar considerations apply to Plaid Cymru's manifesto, which features the title 'Defending Wales', with the major difference that Plaid Cymru has not been the party of government in the principality so it has less of a track record to promote.
In summary, with the exception of the Green Party manifesto, there is nothing to suggest that a systematic approach to tackling empty property is on the radar of the political parties.