Vacant Residential Properties

Lord Dubs Excerpts

Thursday 12th February 2015 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Dubs]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what further steps they are taking to reduce the number of residential properties left vacant by their owners.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Communities and Local Government (Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon) (Con)]

My Lords, this Government have provided the tools and incentives to tackle empty properties. The number of homes empty for more than six months is now at a record low. This Government have achieved a year-on-year reduction in long-term empty homes through incentives such as the new homes bonus, changes to council tax and by providing over £200 million of empty homes programme funding.

[Lord Dubs (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for the Answer but, frankly, it is not good enough. There is still widespread anger at the number of empty properties in this country, especially in London, where developers build luxury properties and market them abroad to people who simply use them as an investment and not for housing. Surely what we need is more power for local authorities to impose swingeing rates of council tax on properties left empty for a long time and to make sure that those local authorities use it.

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon]

The Government have taken stringent action. The noble Lord talks about London. In Wandsworth, for example, we have seen the number of empty homes come down from 85,000 in 2009 to 59,000 in 2013. In addition, we have provided over £3.4 billion to local authorities, in recognition of delivery of over 700,000 new homes, of which 100,000 have been empty homes. He talks of council tax. Councils can also now charge—and we have empowered them to do so—up to 150% council tax for homes empty for more than two years.