By James Simons
The revelation that over 11,000 homes across the UK have been empty for 10 years or more is disturbing, given the level of homelessness in London.
Research by the Liberal Democrats has found that from the 276 local councils more than 216,000 homes across the UK have been empty for six months or more.
Lib Dem leader Vince Cable called it a “national scandal”, at a time when “the homelessness crisis is worsening”. Homelessness in Britain has been on a high in recent years, leaving some of its victims dead in extreme cases. The winter season is particularly dangerous for the health and lives of the homeless, and many have died on the streets as a result.
The research by the Lib Dems revealed that Durham had the most empty homes (6,500) followed by Leeds (5,724), Bradford (4,144), Cornwall (3,273) and Liverpool (3,093).
The data – obtained through a Freedom of Information request – also reveals only one in 13 councils is making use of Empty Dwelling Management Orders.
EDMOs allow councils in England and Wales to take over residential properties that have been empty for six months or more.
Only 19 of the 247 councils in England and Wales that responded (the powers do not apply in Scotland) had used an EDMO in the past five years.
Councils did return 23,000 empty homes back into use.
Last December, a committee of MPs found more than 78,000 families were living in temporary accommodation in England. The number of people sleeping on the streets had increased by 134% since 2011.
RESOURCES
Mr Cable has called on the government to review the current system “which is clearly not working”.
“Councils need to be given the powers and resources to bring empty homes back into use,” he said.
“This must form part of a wider package to tackle the housing crisis, including building more homes on unused public sector land and clamping down on land-banking.”
The Department for Communities and Local Government say powers had been given to councils to bring empty homes back into use.
“At the same time, we’re implementing the major changes to law and investing over £1bn to 2020 to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping,” a spokesman added.
The findings of the research is alarming but is expected to lead to speedy action to reverse the shocking revelation