No festive cheer in vacant dwellings - Heath

12.00.00am GMT Fri 22nd Dec 2006

Figures obtained by Liberal Democrat Shadow Leader of the House, David Heath MP, reveal the staggering amount of unoccupied homes in England.

The Government would only release figures up to 2005, when there were 723,200 vacant dwellings in England. This is a rise of nearly 10,000 on 2004 when there were 714,000 vacant dwellings. In every year since 2001, there have been over 700,000 unoccupied homes in England.

Liberal Democrat Shadow Leader of the House, David Heath MP is calling on the Government to take action to reduce the number of unoccupied homes and to tackle the growing problem of homelessness. The Government itself admits that there are now over a 100,000 homeless families.

Commenting Liberal Democrat Shadow Leader of the House, David Heath MP said "It is a scandal that there are this many empty homes at a time when so many families are homeless this Christmas. The Government must realise that there is an affordable housing crisis in this country but they're not doing anything about it.

"It is going to be a bleak Christmas for many homeless families and yet there are over half a million unoccupied homes in England. There have been over 700,000 vacant dwellings in each of the last five years but the Government seems unwilling or unable to produce policies to tackle the problem.

"Local councils must be given the power to impose management orders on homes left empty for more than a year and whose owners have refused to bring them back into use. Councils should be encouraged to make use of these empty dwelling management orders."