Empty properties can solve Britain's housing shortage

ONE OF Labour's flagship pledges was to build 1.5 million homes during this Parliament.

- Sheila Smith

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That’s 300,000 a year. It looked ambitious, and it was. Up to June, 186,600 new homes were delivered — 8% fewer than the previous year. The “flagship” faces even choppier waters as it tries to navigate inherited trends: a turgid planning system and a shortage of skilled construction workers derived from successive governments prioritising low-grade degrees ahead of vocational courses.

Nevertheless, Labour’s house-building directive continues. It’s fire-up the bulldozers, clear swathes of greenfield and hope that voters mistake activity for achievement. What people will see instead is environmental destruction, economic inefficiency and shortsightedness.

But a better, greener and cheaper answer is hiding in plain sight — Britain’s scandalous stock of empty homes.

Official statistics suggest almost half of the 1.5million housing target could be achieved without building a single new house, as some 676,000 homes stand empty — at least 260,000 vacant long-term.