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

To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of empty houses in each of the past three years.

Statistics on vacant dwellings in England, as reported for the purposes of council tax, for each of the past three years are shown in Table 1 below.

Table 1. All vacant dwellings¹ and Long-Term vacant dwellings² England, 2022 to 2024.

Source: Council Tax Base (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/council-taxbase-statistics) and also published in Live Table 615 (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-dwelling-stock-including-vacants)

¹ These are defined as empty properties as classified for council tax purposes and include all empty properties liable for council tax and properties that are empty but receive a council tax exemption. They do not include second homes as classified for council tax purposes.

² These are defined as properties liable for council tax that have been empty for more than six months and that are not subject to Empty Homes Discount class D or empty due to specific flooding events.