Empty Homes a 'Scandal', Says Stunell

Communities Minister Andrew Stunell has described the 300,000 long-term empty homes in England as a scandal with four million people stranded on housing waiting lists. He said that if the empty properties were occupied by average sized families - around 700,000 more people could have a home of their own. Mr Stunell called on communities to step up work to tackle the problem by making use of help and support from the Government. The Government says communities stand to benefit by over £2billion if all long-term empty properties were brought back into use – with the New Homes Bonus paying out £7,000 for the average empty property, it said. Read more on the CLG website.