While estimates over the number of empty properties in England vary, all sides have expressed the need to reintroduce these properties to help improve the imbalance between supply and demand.
According to Halifax, 1.6 per cent of all residential properties in local authorities in England stand empty, with 15 local authorities having over 3 per cent unoccupied.
The lender also claimed a high proportion of empty homes impacted on property prices in the surrounding area.
However, while it has tracked a fall of 6 per cent in the number of empty homes in England between April 2003 and 2006, there were still nearly 290,000 disused properties.
Martin Ellis, chief economist at Halifax, said: “Rising property prices encourage the rejuvenation of empty homes in many areas. However, it is clear that intervention is also necessary. We would like the government to extend the 5 per cent rate of VAT for renovating an empty home to all properties vacant for more than six months.”
Meanwhile, The Empty Homes Agency has asked ordinary people to report long-term empty properties to it so it can help bring them back into use.
David Ireland, chief executive of the Empty Homes Agency, said: “We are convinced that returning more empty homes to use should be part of the housing solution. There are 663,000 empty homes in England but nobody takes responsibility for them.”
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