New figures from the Empty Homes charity show that 19,069 long-term empty properties were brought back into use during the year to September, based on the latest council tax information.

There are now 259,842 ‘long-term’ empty homes, which is 7% less than at the same time last year. However, there are still more than 700,000 empty homes in England overall, a reduction of just 10,276 because more homes have also become empty during the year.

These findings underline that around a quarter of all new homes in England created last year were empty homes being brought back into use.

Chief Executive David Ireland said: “The huge effort made by people this year to get empty homes back into occupation has created a major contribution to housing supply and averted what would otherwise have been a rise in vacant properties.”

Mr. Ireland warned that there are still a large number of properties that are effectively being landbanked and are not available for people to bring back into use.

These empty properties include:

10,187 homes local authorities have made it illegal to live. These include homes acquired for demolition and future development through compulsory purchase orders and those subject to closing orders

9,444 homes that have been repossessed by mortgage lenders but have not been sold or let