Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an assessment of the effectiveness of his Department's policies on reducing the number of empty homes in the UK.

As mentioned in the answer to Question UIN 23007 on 30 April 2024, the department publishes live tables on dwelling stock, which includes vacant homes here: Live tables on dwelling stock (including vacants) - GOV.UK. This data is collated from Council Taxbase data, collected by local authorities.

Our published figures for empty homes in England are in live table 615 which can be found here. As for the rest of the UK, housing is a devolved matter.

Local authorities already have powers to deal with empty homes.