{"id":70029,"date":"2016-04-28T10:25:39","date_gmt":"2016-04-28T10:25:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=a79910ba6513231f22e4e4dc2d1af2f6"},"modified":"2016-04-28T10:25:39","modified_gmt":"2016-04-28T10:25:39","slug":"press-release-empty-homes-reach-all-time-low","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=70029","title":{"rendered":"Press release: Empty homes reach all time low"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<div class=\"call-to-action\">\n<ul>\n<li>reversal of downward trend in numbers of owner occupied households<\/li>\n<li>record drop in number of empty homes<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/statistics\/dwelling-stock-estimates-in-england-2015\">New figures<\/a> show that the number of empty homes is now at its lowest level since records began. This equates to a drop of over a third from 318,642 in 2004 to 203,596 in 2015. <\/p>\n<p>Figures also show an increase in the number of owner-occupied homes in the past year, after 7 years of decline, starting in 2007.  <\/p>\n<p>The downward trend in ownership is continuing to level out after a fall from a peak of 69.5% in 2002 to 62.5% in 2015 and 62.8% in 2014.  <\/p>\n<p>And the government has got the country building again \u2013 with the number of new homes up by a quarter in the last year alone, the highest annual percentage increase in net additional homes for 28 years.<\/p>\n<p>Housing and Planning Minister Brandon Lewis said: <\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>We are turning around the housing market and making sure the best use is made of all housing including empty homes.<\/p>\n<p>We are very clear that a house should be a home which is why we have taken action to stop homes being bought up and left as an empty investment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"last-child\">And we\u2019ve taking forward the boldest ambition for housing in a generation, doubling the budget so we can help a million more people into homeownership, while delivering a bigger, and better private rental sector.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The government has introduced a number of measures to get homes back into use, that have stood empty for years.<\/p>\n<p>These include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>rewarding councils for bringing empty homes back in to use through the New Homes Bonus \u2013 since April 2011, councils have been allocated over \u00a34.846 billion for providing new homes<\/li>\n<li>providing over 704,000 additional homes, bringing over 106,000 empty homes will be back into use and providng 271,000 affordable homes<\/li>\n<li>giving councils the power to increase Council Tax on empty properties<\/li>\n<li>introducing charges on certain ownership to prevent residential property being held through companies left empty<\/li>\n<li>ensuring Capital Gains Tax is due on gains made by foreign owners who sell residential property here in the UK (much of which is left empty); this means the same rules apply to residents and non-residents<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The government is determined to provide more homes to give hard-working families across the country the changes to realise their ambition of home ownership.  <\/p>\n<p>It has committed more than \u00a320 billion over the next 5 years to help meet its ambition to provide 1 million new homes.  <\/p>\n<p>This is on top of Right to Buy being extended to 1.3 million people, shared ownership properties being made available to a much larger number of people and 200,000 Starter Homes being provided at a minimum 20% discount for first time buyers. <\/p>\n<h2 id=\"further-information\">Further information<\/h2>\n<p>Since 2010 this government has provided 704,000 additional homes and 291,000 people have been helped into homeownership through government backed schemes. <\/p>\n<p>See the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/statistics\/dwelling-stock-estimates-in-england-2015\">dwelling stock estimates in England: 2015<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"contact postal-address\" id=\"contact_40\">\n<div class=\"content\">\n<h3>Office address and general enquiries<\/h3>\n<div class=\"vcard contact-inner\">\n<p class=\"adr\">\n<span class=\"street-address\">2 Marsham Street<br \/>\n<br \/>\nLondon<\/span><br \/>\n<span class=\"postal-code\">SW1P 4DF<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"email-url-number\">\n<p class=\"contact_form_url\">\n              <span class=\"type\">Contact form<\/span><br \/>\n              <a href=\"http:\/\/forms.communities.gov.uk\/\">http:\/\/forms.communiti&#8230;<\/a>\n            <\/p>\n<p class=\"tel\">\n              <span class=\"type\">General enquiries:  please use this number if you are a member of the public<\/span><br \/>\n              030 3444 0000\n            <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"contact \" id=\"contact_171\">\n<div class=\"content\">\n<h3>Media enquiries<\/h3>\n<div class=\"vcard contact-inner\">\n<div class=\"email-url-number\">\n<p class=\"email\">\n              <span class=\"type\">Email<\/span><br \/>\n              <a class=\"email\" href=\"mailto:press.office@communities.gsi.gov.uk\">press.office@communities.gsi.gov.uk<\/a>\n            <\/p>\n<p class=\"tel\">\n              <span class=\"type\">Please use this number if you&#8217;re a journalist wishing to speak to Press Office<\/span><br \/>\n              030 3444 1201\n            <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The number of empty homes is now at its lowest level since records began.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70029"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=70029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70029\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=70029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=70029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=70029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}