Agenda item

The Senior Strategic Housing Officer presented the Empty Homes Strategy for Members’ consideration.

It was reported that according to the national council tax database for 2025, there were 542,276 empty homes recorded in October across England, representing 2.1 per cent of all homes. In October 2025, Bromsgrove District had 635 empty homes, of which 384 had been empty for more than 6 months.

The Council was committed to identifying empty homes and developing options for bringing them back into use as quickly as possible.

Cabinet was informed that the aim of the Strategy was to:

·       help alleviate housing need

·       improve housing conditions

·       offer a wider choice of housing to residents

·       minimise the blight that can result where properties are left empty and neglected.

The strategic approach to tackling empty homes and delivering on the Council’s commitment, was centred around three priority areas:

·       Priority 1 - Develop systems, processes and multi-agency working

·       Priority 2 - Improve intervention pathways, resources and performance

·       Priority 3 - Strengthen early intervention, engagement and monitoring

It was explained that an empty home was a dwelling which was unoccupied and substantially unfurnished. There were two main types of empty homes. Short term empty homes were dwellings which had been unoccupied for under six months. It was often the case that these were in the process of sale. Short term empty homes naturally occurred as people’s circumstances changed, and they moved between homes.

Long term empty homes were dwellings which had been unoccupied and were substantially unfurnished for six months or longer. Bringing long term, privately owned empty homes back into use was the focus of this Strategy. Rather than representing a natural process of change, long term empty homes indicated there may be other factors leading to a property remaining empty.

Residential properties remained empty for various reasons, for example resolving legal ownership as part of an inheritance process. Other factors included new homes waiting for a buyer, owners abandoning properties and owners having a lack of funds for repairs and refurbishment.

There was no Act of Parliament that created a duty on local housing authorities to tackle empty homes. However, Councils did have a general housing duty to review housing conditions and needs as defined in the Housing Act 1985.

National policy focused on empowering Local Authorities to bring vacant dwellings back in to use, guided by a local empty homes strategy. Local Authorities had the discretion to charge empty homeowners council tax premiums and had a range of legislative powers to tackle empty homes.

A contribution of £7,680 from Bromsgrove District Council’s Homelessness, Rough Sleeping and Domestic Abuse Grant (26/27) had been agreed to support the funding of the part-time Empty Homes Officer.

Members welcomed this important Strategy and thanked the Senior Strategic Housing Officer for the comprehensive report.

Members questioned whether this process would be undertaken quickly in terms of getting empty homes back on the open market. Officers explained that this would be the responsibility of the Private Sector Housing Team to manage this process as quickly and effectively as possible. It was reported that since November 2025, five long term empty homes had been released on the open market, which was a great result for the District.

RECOMMENDED thatthe Bromsgrove District Council Empty Homes Strategy 2026 – 29 be adopted.