Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she plans to introduce (a) targets and (b) incentives to reduce the number of long-term vacant social housing properties in (i) Middlesbrough and Redcar, (ii) Cleveland and (iii) other areas with above-average vacancy rates.

Units are likely to be reported as temporarily unavailable when works are being carried out as part of Private Registered Providers’ stock condition remediation and energy efficiency works.

This is set out in the Regulator of Social Housing’s “Private Registered Provider Social Housing Stock In England – Sector Characteristics and Stock Movement” report for 2023-24, available on gov.uk here.

Those reported as permanently unavailable may be scheduled for significant work, restructure, or demolition.

Variation in the number of permanently unavailable units will be driven by multiple factors such as re-development programmes and individual approaches by Private Registered Providers to asset management.

The government encourages social housing providers to develop solutions that make best use of the social housing stock and minimise void periods where possible.