Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of empty homes in the England; and what steps they intend to take to reduce the number of such empty homes.

Statistics on vacant dwellings in England and in each local authority district are published in the Ministry’s live table 615 which is available (attached) at the following link. This table shows the annual total numbers of empty homes, those vacant longer than six months and also vacants in the local authority, housing association and other public sector tenures.

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-dwelling-stock-including-vacants.

There were 605,891 Vacant Dwellings in England on 2 October 2017, an increase of 16,125 (2.7 per cent) from 589,766 on 3 October 2016. Vacant dwellings were 2.5 per cent of the dwelling stock in England on 2 October 2017.

There were 205,293 Long-Term Vacant Dwellings in England on 2 October 2017, an increase of 5,148 (2.6 per cent) from 200,145 on 3 October 2016 but remain lower than when records began on 1 Nov 2004 (318,642). Long-term vacant dwellings were 0.9 per cent of the dwelling stock in England on 2 October 2017.

Rates of council tax charged on empty homes are a matter for individual local authorities, who will take into account local circumstances in reaching their decision. In 2018, 299 out of 326 authorities reported that they were charging a premium on some of their empty dwellings, up from 291 in 2017.