EHA urges further action

The Empty Homes Agency (EHA) has said that the public should do more to help reduce the number of long-term empty homes around the UK.

In an appeal timed to coincide with National Empty Homes Week of Action, the EHA has said that many such properties go unnoticed due to no one taking responsibility for re-using them.

Incentives such as reducing the VAT on the refurbishment of homes that have been empty for at a year to below five per cent would help encourage buildings to be reused, the EHA has suggested.

"If a property is empty for six months or more it's likely that something's not quite right. There aren't many reasons why you would need to leave a property empty for six months," said EHA chief executive David Ireland.

"There are 663,000 wasted empty homes in England. The government is fixated on just building more homes, but we are convinced that returning more empty homes to use should be part of the solution too," Mr Ireland added.

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