Government criticised over empty homes 'U-turn'

The government has been accused of a u-turn on promises to bring more empty homes back into use and of substituting instead a policy concentrating entirely on new building.

Yesterday housing minister Caroline Flint announced a range of measures to try to deal with issues in the housing market, but the only one mentioning houses that have already been built was the possibility of more money on top of the £200 million already allocated to buy up some newly built homes that have not been sold.

The Empty Homes Agency chief executive David Ireland said the government had stated in October that it was planning "to deliver more affordable housing by bringing empty homes back into use and giving more cash to communities who are building more homes".

Ms Flint has reneged on that promise, Mr Ireland claimed, by instead looking to reward councils that encourage "speculative" building of new homes.

The Empty Homes Agency believes the housing shortage could be tackled by renovating the hundreds of thousands of homes that presently lie idle, noting that housing minister Iain Wright stated on July 1st that there are 762,000 of these in England alone.