Bricks Without People: Put Your Council’s Empty Homes Register to Work

There is a particular kind of absurdity in a country where families wait years for a social home while boarded-up houses sit behind scaffolding that never moves. The absurdity is not accidental. It is recorded. Councils keep the data. They know which properties are empty, which owners claim an exemption, which buildings have been vacant for years. The question is whether we are prepared to ask for the ledger and read it aloud.

A register is not a secret

Councils hold information on empty homes through council tax records, empty homes strategies and enforcement files. Some publish a summary. Most do not publish enough. Use the Freedom of Information Act and the Environmental Information Regulations to request the data. Ask for the number of long-term vacant properties, the number of council tax exemptions and discounts linked to emptiness, the number of properties subject to the empty homes premium, and the enforcement actions taken. Ask for addresses where disclosure is safe and for aggregate data where it is not. A council may refuse some details, but it cannot refuse the debate.

The gap is the story

Put the empty homes figure next to the housing waiting list. Put it next to the number of temporary accommodation placements. Put it next to the number of households accepted as homeless. In 2026, those numbers do not need exaggeration. The contrast is the argument. Not every empty property is a suitable home. Some are derelict. Some are in the wrong place. Some are second homes that the owner uses for part of the year. But many are habitable buildings held out of use while need grows. That is a political choice, not a natural disaster.

The loopholes are designed

Owners and councils sometimes use the same language to avoid action. A property is “under repair”. A building is “between tenants”. A flat is “managed” but never let. Council tax exemptions for empty and unfurnished properties, structural repairs and occupation by a caretaker can become a shelter from scrutiny. Holiday lets and short-term rentals can hollow out streets while counting as businesses rather than homes. Companies can hide ownership behind layers of registration. The empty homes premium was meant to change behaviour, but a premium is not a strategy if the owner can absorb it.

We should name those loopholes without pretending they are the whole story. Some councils are doing serious work with limited powers. Some owners are genuinely stuck. But a campaign should ask why the powers that exist are used so unevenly. Why does one authority compulsorily purchase a derelict pub while another lets a row of terraces decay? Why does one council publish an empty homes strategy with targets while another has no named officer responsible for the issue?

A template campaign for your area

First, request the data. Ask for long-term vacant properties, exemptions, premium records, enforcement notices and any empty homes strategy. Give the council the statutory deadline and keep a record of the response.

Second, build a public ledger. Publish what you can: the number of empty homes, the number of households waiting, the length of the waiting list, the amount of council tax forgone through exemptions, and the enforcement actions taken. Anonymise where necessary. Use charts. Make the gap visible.

Third, take it to scrutiny. Ask your council’s housing scrutiny committee to examine the empty homes record. Ask for a named officer and a published action plan. Ask how the council uses empty dwelling management orders, compulsory purchase and community asset transfer. Ask whether the council has considered a local lettings agency or a refurbishment partnership.

Fourth, name the barriers. Is the council short of enforcement staff? Is it reluctant to use compulsory purchase because of cost? Are owners sitting on property because land values rise faster than refurbishment costs? Are exemptions being used as a loophole? Publish the answers.

Fifth, demand specific outcomes. For each long-term vacant property, ask what the council will do: negotiate, refurbish, compulsorily purchase, or support community use. For each empty homes premium, ask whether it is changing behaviour or simply raising revenue. For each waiting list figure, ask how many homes would be needed to make a visible difference this year.

Sixth, build a coalition. Tenant groups, housing campaigners, heritage groups, local businesses and trade unions all have an interest in bringing empty buildings back into use. A campaign that only shouts “empty homes” can be dismissed. A campaign that publishes a ledger, names the loopholes and proposes practical routes to use is harder to ignore.

We say enough

Housing need is not a mystery. It is counted. Empty property is not invisible. It is recorded. The gap between the two is a political failure, and it is one that local campaigners can expose with a spreadsheet, a freedom of information request and a public meeting. Ask for the ledger. Read it out. Then demand that the bricks are put to people.