We’re aiming to show why Empty Homes Matter - Andy Moseley

Most of us will be aware of at least one empty home in our street or neighbourhood. We’ll have seen the overgrown garden, the boarded-up windows, or some other sign that tells us a property has been empty for a long time.

Andy Moseley, Policy and Projects Manager, Scottish Empty Homes Partnership

Far fewer people know just how many long-term empty homes there currently are in Scotland. Figures published last year by the Scottish Government revealed that there are more than 43,000 homes lying empty across the country. Almost 28,000 of these have been empty for more than a year.

Over the past decade, with the backing of the Scottish Government and Shelter Scotland, the Scottish Empty Homes Network and the network of Empty Homes Officers employed by local councils across the country have worked to bring more than 6000 empty homes back into use.

While these empty properties have gone on to once more become homes, often providing much needed housing for key workers and others who need affordable housing, it is still fair to say that empty homes are seen as a problem rather than as something that can be part of the solution for tackling the housing emergency and delivering the longer-term vision for housing in Scotland set out last year by the Scottish Government in Housing to 2040.

This is why the Scottish Empty Homes Partnership, in partnership with COSLA and ALACHO, launched our Why Empty Homes Matter information pack at our annual conference last month.

The pack shows how bringing empty homes back to use can contribute to delivering Housing to 2040’s four-part plan of: More homes at the heart of great places; Affordability and choice; Affordable warmth and zero emissions homes, and; Improving the quality of all homes.

Bringing empty homes back into use can help meet the demand for affordable homes in our most densely populated towns and cities. It can also help to revive and revitalise town centres, villages and rural communities, helping to once more make them great places that people are proud to call home.

Alongside the government’s commitment to provide an additional 110,000 affordable homes, including 77,000 social homes, over the next ten years, empty homes can help to ensure that there is the widest possible range of types and tenures of homes available to all, irrespective of where they live.

Furthermore, bringing empty homes back in to use can help drive down the carbon emissions caused by housing and housing construction. Where a home is retrofitted to improve energy performance, it can also help to drive down the cost of heating and reduce operational carbon emissions.

By working to support renovation of suitable empty homes and returning them back to use, local authorities can help to breathe new life into old homes, improving the quality of housing stock and improving the quality of life in the communities with empty stock.

Every empty home has been a home for someone in the past and could potentially be a home for someone again in the future. We hope that the information and case studies in Why Empty Homes Matter will be a useful resource for everyone involved in housing strategy across Scotland.

Andy Moseley, Policy and Projects Manager, Scottish Empty Homes Partnership