A coalition of 19 MPs and peers has urged the Government to prioritise addressing England’s long-term housing crisis by bringing more than 265,000 empty homes back into use.
This call follows a parliamentary roundtable, chaired by Paula Barker MP, which highlighted that these properties have remained vacant for over six months while more than 123,000 households live in costly, temporary accommodation funded by local councils.
The roundtable, supported by the housing non-profit Capital Letters and homelessness charity Crisis, identified several key actions to tackle the issue.
Among them was increasing flexibility in the Affordable Homes Programme to allocate more funding for repurposing empty homes, reforming Empty Homes Dwelling Management Orders to allow councils to act on properties after six months rather than two years, and introducing a national empty homes strategy as part of the Government’s upcoming long-term housing plan.
Paula Barker MP said: “It is not right that so many properties are sitting empty when so many families are in desperate need of a home. We are urging the Government to drive action on empty homes as part of its long-term housing plans. This will enable more households to be supported into a secure home sooner.”
The MPs also called for a statutory duty for councils to address empty homes and for probate reforms to prevent properties from being indefinitely exempt from the Empty Homes Premium, a tax on vacant properties.
The Parliamentarians argue that bringing empty homes back into use could make an immediate impact on alleviating the housing supply crisis and homelessness while the country works to scale up building new social and affordable homes.
The full letter, signed by organisations including The Empty Homes Network and Action on Empty Homes, can be read here.
