Ministers to set out empty homes plans

Speaking in the House of Commons on Monday, Andrew Stunell said there has been a ‘substantial failure of the market’ in bringing empty homes back into use, a situation proposals being announced this month are designed to address.

He did not give details of the plans, but said there would be ‘investment’ and this would ‘make a big difference to the figures nationally’.

The latest update on the Communities and Local Government department’s structural reform plan, published in July, said the department was planning to issue an empty homes strategy, together with an indication of how funding will be allocated. It said formal bids for this funding will be invited in the autumn.

The government announced a £100 million fund to bring empty homes back into use in the comprehensive spending review.

‘It is a scandal that we have in this country 300,000 homes that have been empty for longer than six months,’ he said.

Caroline Lucas, Green Party MP for Brighton, asked the minister how many empty homes management orders have been used to force properties to be brought back into use.

Mr Stunell said only 46 have been issued by local authorities since they were introduced in 2006, but added they are a ‘backstop’.

‘I am happy to say that a lot of good work is done by many local authorities and other agencies to bring homes back into use,’ he said. ‘I intend to accelerate that process dramatically.’