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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what recent estimate they have made of the number of Empty Dwelling Management Orders (EDMOs); what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of EDMOs; and whether they have any proposals to change (1) the regulations relating to EDMOs, and (2) the way in which EDMOs operate in practice, in order to increase their ease of use.

Empty Dwelling Management Orders (EDMOs) enable a local housing authority to put an empty property back into use. The property must have been empty for at least two years and be a blight on the local neighbourhood. It is for local housing authorities to decide when to use these powers and Government does not collect data on the number of EDMOs that have been issued. The number of empty homes is at its lowest since records began. In May 2010 over 300,000 homes in England had been standing empty for longer than 6 months. As of November 2017 the number of long-term empty properties had fallen to 206,236. There are no current plans to make any changes to the way in which EDMOs operate.