Empty homes could ease housing shortage

Monday, 17 October 2005 12:00 AM

There are over half a million empty houses in England, which could help ease the housing shortage if brought back into use.

Only last week, the government warned that the number of thirty-something couples able to afford to buy a property would continue to fall unless more houses were built.

And currently there are over 100,000 households in England living in temporary accommodation.

But research by Halifax, using figures from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, shows that there are 689,675 empty homes.

Many empty homes - branded red field sites by the Empty Homes Agency - are in the north-west. Burnley has the highest proportion of empty homes in the country at 8.3 per cent of its housing stock, followed by Liverpool, where 7.6 per cent are empty.

The north-west is the only region in the country which has seen an increase in the number of empty homes in the past five years, while overall there has been a ten per cent fall.

The research also shows that putting empty homes back into use would increase the stock of affordable housing, as house prices in areas with many empty homes tend to be lower.

House prices in the 23 local authorities where at least five per cent of homes are empty trade at 22 per cent below their region's average, and 31 per cent below the English average.

"While the number of empty homes in England has been trending lower over the past five years, a significant number of properties are still vacant," said Tim Crawford, group economist at Halifax.

Halifax also reveals that there are empty homes in areas with temporary housing need. In Tower Hamlets 7.1 per cent of properties are empty, yet 3.3 per cent of the borough's households are in temporary accommodation.

"It is in the interest of the whole community to eradicate the empty homes problem," Mr Crawford added.

A series of events is taking place around the country this week to flag up the problem of empty homes as part of the National Week of Action on Empty Homes.

In Swindon, one of the 23 local authorities where over five per cent of the homes are vacant, residents are being asked to report homes that have been empty for six months or more to the council to help tackle the shortage of private rented housing.

Empty Homes Agency chief executive, Jonathan Ellis, said: "What we would like to see is a genuinely sequential approach to housing strategy across the country.

"First of all housing authorities looking at the contribution that red field sites could make - where are the empty properties and how realistic is it to bring them back into use?

"Then housing authorities would look at the contribution of brown field sites, previously used land, before then finally considering the necessary contribution from green field sites."

Last week the government said that by 2026 only a third of thirty-something couples would be able to afford their own house, unless the rate at which new houses were being built dramatically increased.

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