Not One Of London’s 20,000 Empty Homes Was Seized Last Year

Not one of London’s 20,000 empty homes was seized by town halls last year despite the housing crisis. Official figures showed that the number of properties taken back into use in 2016 was the lowest for more than a decade. Overall, 208 applications were made across the UK, of which 137 were granted. The number of applications country-wide peaked at 41 in 2012 but has fallen to an average of less than 20 a year since then. Across England, only nine seizure applications for long-term vacant homes were made last year, although government data shows there were more than 200,000 long-term vacant properties. Read more on the Evening Standard website.