Empty Homes

EDM number 2200 in 2008-09, proposed by Grant Shapps on 02/11/2009.
Categorised under the topics of Social rented housing and Empty property.

That this House is concerned by the rising number of empty homes in England; notes that of the 784,000 homes which are currently vacant, 327,000 have been empty for a period of more than six months; is worried 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 empty local authority properties; further notes that just 24 Empty Dwelling Management Orders (EDMOs) have been enforced since their implementation in April 2006; and calls on the Government to scrap EDMOs and instead consider adopting a less bureaucratic approach to the rules which have meant that social landlords are unable to use their empty housing stock to provide families who will otherwise be homeless with a place they can call home.

This motion has been signed by a total of 29 MPs.