Much has been written about how Britain needs to build 300,000 homes a year to solve its housing crisis, but there is another solution that could alleviate the problem: bring its empty homes into use.
There are 1.55 million abandoned residential homes in England and Wales, worth an estimated £530 billion, and 52 per cent of the population passes by a deserted building every week, according to research by the specialist lender Together, which defines abandoned as with “no usual or short-term residents in place, or use as a second home; without any clarity on plans for sale or redevelopment”.
Together’s analysis, which used census and local authority data, found over 240,000 abandoned detached homes, just under 260,000 empty semi-detached homes and nearly 680,000 flats
