For the four million people waiting to organise affordable home insurance on a house of their own, the fact that a Government backed agency has revealed that the number of empty homes available in the country has been massively under estimated will only heighten the disappointment of their long wait.

Agency discovers thousands of homes not listed

The Empty Homes Agency has unearthed a massive register shortfall of long term empty properties, brought about by the Government cuts to local authority budgets and the lean times experienced by social housing groups involved in regeneration projects. The agency say that at least 12,000 homes due for demolition in regeneration areas are still intact as the projects have foundered due to lack of funds, this figure only involves an investigation into just 20 local authorities and may well be the tip of the iceberg. Because of their planned demolition the empty homes don’t appear on any register.

National situation unacceptable

In a country where there are estimated to be over 4 million people on housing waiting lists, any homes that are just lying empty and neglected is nothing but a waste, the fact that even before this new batch of secret empty homes was discovered the UK had approximately 700,000 homes without inhabitants is seen by many as a national scandal.

Private landlords hard to trace

Official figures suggest that around 300,000 of the homes are owned by private individuals who have left them unoccupied for a long time and perhaps are no longer covered by any type of home insurance policy. It is this situation that the Empty Homes Agency was created to address, it is a completely different situation trying to persuade a private owner to renovate his home to that of a Town or City Council.

Incentives to bring about change

However, the Government has announced a raft of measures designed to address the situation including the New Homes Bonus which rewards social housing landlords for returning unused properties back to the market. A figure of about £7,000 per home is available to authorities that do this and it is thought that many councils will consider passing the sum on to private landlords in a bid to make the homes available for those desperate to find a place to live.