The British Property Federation has urged Government to tackle the UK housing crisis by bringing empty homes back to life.
Reviving empty homes provides a cheaper alternative to building new ones, it has told ministers. The federation has estimated that bringing a house back into use can take as little as £10,000, a fraction of the £100,000 cost of building a new social home from scratch.
There are currently 762,000 empty homes in England and close to 1m in the UK, according to figures released by the independent charity Empty Homes. Meanwhile, there are 450,000 fewer social homes than a decade ago and 1.7m families on housing waiting lists, the agency said.
A Communities and Local Government spokesperson said: “The Coalition Agreement gives a commitment to explore a range of measures to bring empty homes back into use. Ministers are currently looking at the nature of the problem and potential solutions, and expect to make a further announcement shortly.”
In a separate development, the Mayor of London and the London Homes and Communities Agency have agreed funding which will enable stalled affordable housing schemes totalling over 500 dwellings to proceed in the capital.
Search Planning Portal: LINK
