Empty Homes

EDM number 591 in 2009-10, proposed by Grant Shapps on 13/01/2010.
Categorised under the topic of Empty property.

That this House is concerned by the rising number of empty homes in England; notes that of the 784,000 homes which currently vacant 327,000 have been empty for a period of more than six months; is further concerned that despite the presence of 1.8 million families on the social housing waiting list and an escalation in the number of mortgage repossessions more has not been done to make use of the one in 30 local authority properties which are empty; further notes that just 27 Empty Dwelling Management Orders (EDMOs) have been enforced since their introduction in April 2006; and calls on the Government to scrap EDMOs and instead to consider the adoption of a less bureaucratic approach to the rules which prevent social landlords from using their empty housing stock to provide families who would otherwise be homeless with a place they can call home.

This motion has been signed by a total of 25 MPs.