Oral Answers to Questions

Henry Smith Excerpts

Monday 24th October 2016 Commons Chamber

[Henry Smith (Crawley) (Con)]

6. What estimate he has made of the number of empty homes in England.

[The Minister for Housing and Planning (Gavin Barwell)]

As of October 2015, 203,596 homes in England had been standing empty for longer than six months, the lowest number since records began.

[Henry Smith]

I thank my hon. Friend for that answer. Protecting green spaces and providing new homes are both important. What further steps can the Government take to ensure that empty homes are reutilised, notwithstanding the fact that they have already reduced the number of empty homes to an extremely low level?

[Gavin Barwell]

Local authorities have strong incentives. They earn the same financial reward through the new homes bonus for bringing an empty home back into use as for building a new one. They also have strong enforcement powers. They can charge up to 150% council tax for homes that have been empty for more than two years and apply empty dwelling management orders to force owners to bring properties back into use.