On June 10th Chris Bailey, Director of Policy and Campaigns for Action on Empty Homes, gave evidence to the London Assembly Housing Committee investigation into London’s rising numbers of long-term empty homes.

Long-term empty homes in London have more than doubled in a decade and over 100,000 homes are officially classed as empty with total vacancy including those declared out of residential use as so-called second homes topping 160,000.

Most experts estimate the true total to be far higher as some contributors to the evidence session explained.

Below Chris Bailey introduces the session on what London’s shocking data is telling us:

At the start of the evidence session for the London Assembly Housing Committee’s investigation into London’s surge in empty homes numbers, I said that the rising numbers of long-term empty homes tell us two things:

1, we could put these wasted resources to use faster and in larger numbers, if London had an intervention programme that offered incentives and investment to save public expenditure and transform the lives of those currently languishing in Temporary Accommodation.

2, Increasing numbers of wasted empty homes in an acute housing crisis show us that we are getting housing wrong, especially in London, which is at the heart of our housing crisis.

Around 60% of England’s homeless families are Londoners. But it is the London region, at the heart of our housing crisis, where numbers of long-term empties have risen fastest in the last decade.

Long-term empty homes numbers have more than doubled (up 138% since 2016 against a national rise of 50%).

Watch the evidence session, which includes great contributions from Sam Bloomer of Shelter - on needs-based approaches to housing delivery and acquisition strategies to boost social supply; and Tara Clinton of Arup - on retrofit opportunities and lowering carbon impact while creating homes that are healthier and cheaper to live in.

The following session, which is also available at the same London Assembly Youtube video link (see green button at top of this page), includes evidence from London Empty Homes Officers with experience in Lewisham, Lambeth, Camden and Waltham Forest.

All 3 officers present highlighted under-reporting of empty homes, obstacles to action and drew attention to issues which Action on Empty Homes currently campaign on. These included: unsold newbuild; the impact of Airbnbs monetising vacancy and effectively funding homes being kept out of residential use - with one officer talking about whole blocks of luxury newbuild which had never seen a single permanent resident; overseas investor acquisitions of newbuild which is then not used to live in; and unsold retirement homes (these often leave bereaved families paying exorbitant service charges for many years after their relative has sadly died).