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A cross-party group of MPs, Peers and housing organisations has written to the housing minister to call for urgent action to bring over a quarter of a million long term empty homes back into use.
There are 265,000 homes in England that have been vacant for over 6 months, and at the same time there are over 123,000 households who are living in expensive temporary accommodation funded through local councils.
The letter follows a recent parliamentary roundtable on empty homes chaired by Paula Barker MP. During this, 5 actions were identified that would help to bring long-term empty homes back into use, some of which can be quickly and easily implemented:
+ Increase Affordable Homes Programme (AHP) flexibility to enable a greater portion of the funding to be used to bring empty homes back into use – currently this is limited to 10% outside of London.
+ Reform Empty Homes Dwelling Management Orders (EDMOs) so that councils can use them to address empty homes after six months rather than two years.
+ Introduce a national empty homes strategy as part of the Government’s long-term housing strategy, due next year, and a contribution to the target to deliver 1.5m homes.
+ Establish a statutory duty for councils to undertake empty homes work.
+ Reform probate to end the situation whereby some properties are exempted from the Empty Homes Premium – an additional tax councils can charge on empty properties – indefinitely.
The Parliamentarians outline that empty homes can play a significant role in immediately addressing the housing supply crisis and addressing homelessness whilst the country scales up building more social and affordable homes.
Barker 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 full text of the letter can be found here.
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