5,057 Long Term Empty Homes in Hertfordshire Would Help Meet Housing Need

Bringing long term empty homes back into occupancy would help meet Hertfordshire’s local housing need. It would also help protect the countryside from unnecessary development.

The latest 2025 Council data reveals there are 5,057 long-term empty, unused houses across Hertfordshire. This is an increase of 20% over the 2024 figure of 4,213. And it’s a staggering increase of 30% over the 2023 figure of 3,885 long term empty homes in our county.

It’s worth noting that the numbers of long term empty homes in Hertfordshire have increased at a much greater rate than the total housing stock.  Total homes across all ten districts stands at 521,036, an increase of 3,083 (0.6%) over 2024, and an increase of 6,916 (1.3%) over 2023.

Where does the data come from?

The charity Action on Empty Homes has analysed Council Taxbase data released by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government on 13 November 2025. We have taken a look at the figures for the ten Districts and Boroughs in Hertfordshire. To be clear, we have no means of independently confirming the data, it is simply what the Councils themselves have reported to the Government.

Long term empty homes in Hertfordshire

The figures on empty homes in our county are eye-catching. The district with the most long term empty homes is Dacorum, with 666 vacant homes. Three other districts – East Herts, Hertsmere and St Albans – each have more than 600 long term empty homes. And three more districts – North Herts, Watford and Welwyn Hatfield – each have more than 500 long term empty homes. This is a lot of unoccupied dwellings.

Further, there is a year-on-year increase in the number of long term empty homes in all ten Districts and Boroughs across the county; nowhere is the figure declining, as we would hope. See the details in the table below.

Together with brownfield, this is a big opportunity

Our most recent brownfield research shows there is space for at least 28,030 dwellings on previously developed land in Hertfordshire, of which 9,552 dwellings already have planning permission. Add the empty homes data to this, and it appears that well over 33,000 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 back into occupancy as soon as possible.

The data on Long Term Empty Homes (LTE) 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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