Residential Accommodation: Empty Homes

Baroness Bakewell Excerpts

Monday 23rd October 2023 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Baroness Bakewell]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what plans they have to convert empty homes into residential accommodation

[Baroness Swinburne (Con)]

The Government are continuing to take action to bring empty homes back into use and empower local leaders to address the impacts of empty homes. We are halving the time from two years to one year before councils can apply 100% council tax premium on empty homes. We also intend to reform empty dwellings maintenance management orders, cutting the minimum period for action from two years to six months for empty homes that attract anti-social behaviour.

[Baroness Bakewell (Lab)]

I thank the Minister for that, and I recognise and appreciate the changes being made by the Government. However, there is more to be done. The number of long-term empty properties in England has increased by 24% since 2016, and in 2022 it reached a quarter of a million such houses. Scotland and Wales have a national empty homes strategy. Can the Government launch an England strategy similar to that, possibly in the Autumn Statement?

[Baroness Swinburne (Con)]

I wholeheartedly agree with the noble Baroness that we need to drive down the number of empty homes across every part of the country, and as a former councillor, I am all too familiar with the issues of getting those properties back on the market. The Government have put in place incentives for local authorities to act. As I just mentioned, they will be able to double their council tax on those homes after one year rather than two years to fund local services, and, through the new homes bonus, local authorities also receive the same funding reward for bringing empty homes back into use. Of course, we will continue to engage with local authorities to drive down numbers. Some statistics on the devolved nations may be of interest to the noble Baroness: 1% of properties in England are currently classified as long-term empty, whereas in Wales the figure is 1.7% and in Scotland 1.6%. Therefore, all nations in the devolved system are trying to get these numbers down.