4,000 Local Empty Homes Could Help Meet Housing Need

Bringing empty homes into occupancy would not only help meet local housing need, it would also help protect the countryside from unnecessary development.

New data reveals there are 4,000 long-term empty, unused houses across Hertfordshire.

The charity Action on Empty Homes has analysed Government data released by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities on 9 November 2022.

And the figures on empty homes in our county are higher than we expected. Total housing stock across all ten districts in Hertfordshire stands at 508,957. The district with the most long term empty homes is Hertsmere. With 772 vacant homes, that’s 1.7% of the total housing stock of 45,565 in Hertsmere Borough.

Our recently published brownfield research shows there is space for 20,436 dwellings on previously developed land in Hertfordshire. Add the empty homes data to this, and it appears that more than 24,000 dwellings could be redeveloped or otherwise occupied before needing to build any new development on greenfield sites in the precious Hertfordshire countryside.

Here at CPRE Hertfordshire we have long been calling on our local authorities for ‘brownfield first’ policies in order to save the countryside from inappropriate development. This should include bringing empty homes into occupancy as soon as possible.

The empty homes data by district is shown below.

Source: Action on empty homes; ‘long term empty’ is defined as 6 months or greater, and excludes second homes and holiday lets

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