Call to bring 70,000 empty homes into use

The Liberal Democrats, who obtained the details, said the "astonishing" number could house almost half the people on the social housing waiting list.

The party wants the Scottish Government to find ways to bring them back into use.

There were 70,320 empty properties across the country in September last year, according to the figures.

The government said it is already working with housing charity Shelter to identify suspected empty homes and take action to address the issue.

Lib Dem MSP Jim Tolson said: "We want to explore ways that empty houses can be brought back into use as quickly as possible.

"We are looking at ideas such as giving out grants to renovate homes and put them back into the social rented sector, and loans to put them back into the private rented sector.

"It was a Liberal Democrat amendment to the recent Housing Act that now requires local authorities to find out where empty houses are located. The absence of this information has previously been a barrier to encouraging local authorities and owners to bring their properties back into use."

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: "This government's number one priority is to make more affordable housing available and one of our priorities is bringing empty properties back into use.

"That's why we are already working with Shelter on the brand new Report Empty Homes initiative which encourages the public to report the address of a suspected empty home and for local authorities to be then able to take action.

"We are also already looking at other innovative ideas to contribute to this drive."