The difficulties of solving the issue of empty homes has been in the news again. Here at Grafton Empty Homes, we work on a daily basis to turn these cases around.

‘Sometimes, owners of dilapidated properties can feel overwhelmed by the challenge of returning their empty property to being a home. They think that they don’t have the money or the practical support to make their house a home again. We have years of experience engaging with families or missing owners and beneficiaries, and we are able to unlock even the most complex of cases.’

Mark Byrne, CEO of Grafton Empty Homes

Empty Homes under the spotlight: we speak to Neil Tonge, Housing Standards at Wigan Council.

The long-term empty homes sector has been a focus of recent news, with a documentary on the work of Wigan Council and the Housing Standards Manager there, Neil Tonge.

Neil highlights the important work of genealogists in tracing owners, and that often the issues around long-term empty are probate and family disputes. Working towards finding practical and economical solutions, Neil focuses on working with the families, and then providing repairs and making those homes affordable to buy. It’s always cheaper to repair than build from scratch.

We spoke to Neil Tonge and he stated: ‘Sometimes families think that they can’t resolve complex probate issues or disputes. Often, once we have proposed a solution that’s low cost and deliverable, families can see that’s it’s better the house is sold and inhabited than lying empty.’

The programme shows that the rate of long-term empty homes has gone up by 21% since 2011, despite legislation which was introduced that year, to increase council tax on empty homes. This year, there is a new option for councils to apply premiums on second homes and long-term empty properties, introduced under the Levelling-up & Regeneration Bill 2023.

At Grafton Empty Homes, our clients are Local Authorities, Solicitors and private individuals. We can help you trace missing owners of empty properties and propose viable solutions to returning the house to use.

Long-term empty isn’t the same as vacant property.

Whilst the vacancy rate in the U.K. is high, at over 760,000 properties (source), this is the rental market, not the same as long-term empty. In England and Wales there are an estimated 263,000 empty homes so that, taken together there are a staggering 1 million plus empty properties in England and Wales, with Shelter estimating  that in England, there were over 317,000 households without stable housing and over 15,000 in Wales. 

Burnley Council are also making waves in tackling their long-term empty homes issue.

Like any local council, Burnley will be aware that empty homes attract anti-social  and criminal behaviour, such as arson, break-ins or in some cases squatting.

In Burnley, empty homes were at a high of 3232 in 2009 however it’s now at 1731, mainly down to efforts ‘to work with the property owners and encourage them to bring the houses back into use. Using compulsory purchase powers is a last resort after everything else has been tried to stop the properties falling further into disrepair.’

Their most recent efforts have been to tackle seven long-term empty properties in the area, using compulsory purchase orders. Grafton can advise on tracing owners and also how to engage with them once traced.