Taylor Emmet Solicitors and our specialist Empty Homes Team are proud to join The Empty Homes Network and Resonance in supporting an open letter to the Minister of State for Housing, calling for the development of a national strategy to bring empty homes back into use.
Recent figures from the Local Authority Council Taxbase in England 2025 show that 754,280 properties were classed as empty, with the number rising year on year since 2021. Long-term empty homes (those unoccupied for over six months) have also continued to increase, highlighting the urgent need for coordinated national action.
At Taylor Emmet, our Empty Homes Department works closely with local authorities to help return empty properties to use. Doing so delivers wide benefits:
- increases the supply of much-needed housing
- supports environmentally responsible development
- reduces homelessness
- helps to tackle the housing crisis
- improves and regenerates neighbourhoods
The open letter urges the government to implement a standalone national empty homes strategy, including:
- A duty for councils to investigate and act on long-term empty home complaints
- National initiatives, such as a loan scheme, national acquisition fund or enforcement fund
- Replacing the New Homes Bonus System with direct rewards for successful empty homes interventions
- Ringfencing Empty Homes Premium revenues for local housing initiatives
- Developing specific enforcement powers for empty homes
- Reducing stamp duty premium for purchasers where properties are subsequently used to meet local demand for settled and social housing.
These measures would place a clear responsibility on local authorities to tackle long-term empty homes, supported by practical tools, funding initiatives and strengthened powers of enforcement.
Our Empty Homes Team is dedicated to supporting local authorities and private sector partners with a full range of legal solutions to get properties back into use.
To find out how we can help, please contact us on (0114) 218 4348 or email emptyhomes@tayloremmet.co.uk.