Data released last week by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government show a fourth consecutive annual rise in long-term empty homes across the Country, resulting in the biggest rise in figures since records began.
9 out of 10 Councils have reported rises in their empty home figures, with one Authority showing as much as a 340% rise in figures submitted in the previous year.
Director of Action on Empty Homes, Will McMahon, said:
“The new figures are exceptionally worrying. It can’t be right that in the last four years we have seen an escalating housing crisis while the number of long-term empty homes keeps rising. Today there are nearly 100,000 families languishing in overcrowded and temporary accommodation at a time when we know that overcrowded housing is being linked to the spread of the corona virus and to higher mortalityiv.
“During a national housing crisis we cannot afford to see over 268,000 homes stand empty across the country because of the lack of a government strategy to support councils to bring them back into use. It will be impossible to ‘build back better’ if we keep letting our housing crisis get worse.
“Action on Empty Homes calls on Government to introduce a new national empty homes programme to create additional housing supply for those in most housing need, utilising properties currently left vacant or in need of renovation.”
To see the National data click here.
To see a breakdown by Local Authority ranked by % Change, click here.
To view last year's data, click here.