The effect of this would be extremely minimal. Almost all empty homes in the UK are homes that are temporarily empty pending sale or between renters. Having empty homes is actually extremely normal, you can’t really not have empty homes, as people are always moving.
With rare exceptions, empty homes aren’t just sitting there empty for years, like this article implies. The landlords would much rather rent them out and make money.
The UK has far fewer empty empty homes than anywhere else in the developed world. Our housing stock isn’t enough.
There’s no other option but to build more. I hope Labour’s plans can help with that, but who knows. And it’d need to be sustained.
I said it’s a start, not the whole answer to the housing problem.
Also, just as examples:
Long-term empty homes
To be classed as ‘long-term empty’ a home has to be liable for council tax and to have been unfurnished and not lived in for over 6 months. This figure is increasing all the time, but as at October 2023, it was 261,189.
Holiday lets
These are an extension of second homes - homes not used as primary residences but used to make profit for their owners, short-let for several weeks or months of each year, blocking them from becoming anybody’s home. In many cases owners ‘flip’ to business rates which are often cheaper than paying council tax. As at March 2024, there were believed to be at least 85,000 of these such dwellings, flipped to business rates.
Your article implies there are 25 million houses and 1 million is empty. [2]
The empty houses in the photos are not suitable for living in and should be condemned if they haven’t already. Rebuilding a mid-terrace house is not simple and even after blow all of that we managed 1 million out of the 4 million required to at least have one home per family. That sounds like a terrible plan to work on the most expensive work and ultimately not make a dent in the issue.
They could always start with this issue:
https://www.actiononemptyhomes.org/why-empty-homes-matter
The effect of this would be extremely minimal. Almost all empty homes in the UK are homes that are temporarily empty pending sale or between renters. Having empty homes is actually extremely normal, you can’t really not have empty homes, as people are always moving.
With rare exceptions, empty homes aren’t just sitting there empty for years, like this article implies. The landlords would much rather rent them out and make money.
The UK has far fewer empty empty homes than anywhere else in the developed world. Our housing stock isn’t enough.
There’s no other option but to build more. I hope Labour’s plans can help with that, but who knows. And it’d need to be sustained.
I said it’s a start, not the whole answer to the housing problem.
Also, just as examples:
https://www.actiononemptyhomes.org/facts-and-figures
I’m not against building more homes. We need more council homes for sure. Housing should be seen as a human need, not a commodity to trade.
There are 28 million families in the UK. [1]
Your article implies there are 25 million houses and 1 million is empty. [2]
The empty houses in the photos are not suitable for living in and should be condemned if they haven’t already. Rebuilding a mid-terrace house is not simple and even after blow all of that we managed 1 million out of the 4 million required to at least have one home per family. That sounds like a terrible plan to work on the most expensive work and ultimately not make a dent in the issue.
[1] https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/families/bulletins/familiesandhouseholds/2023#%3A~%3Atext=There+were+28.4+million+households%2C-parent+family+(11%25).
[2] https://www.actiononemptyhomes.org/why-empty-homes-matter