Back on the Market: Bringing Empty Homes Back Into Use

There are estimated to be around 635,000 empty homes in England. Of those, 216,000 have been unoccupied for longer than six months. It is notable that the vast majority of these homes are in private hands, with private owners accounting for 91 per cent of all empty dwellings, and probably an even higher percentage of all long-term empty homes. The challenge is to address this imbalance in the market, when incentives on homeowners to fill or sell empty homes are weak, and when regional variations raise the risk, for example, of inadvertently punishing landlords who are genuinely trying but unable to fill a vacant property. In this briefing, we argue that local authorities should be offered an enhanced set of powers to address the problem. Read the briefing on the IPPR website.