An excel file providing data on all long term vacant homes, 2004 to 2017, for England and our eight local districts, as published by MHCLG in Table 615. Data comes from the council tax base statistics return.
Up until April 2013 dwellings undergoing major structural repairs for up to 12 months and those vacant for less than 6 months were eligible for a council tax exemption (Class A and C respectively). In April 2013 these exemptions were replaced with a new flexible discount which applied to all empty properties. Local authorities are now entitled to apply any level of discount from 0% to 100% to all empty properties. Where local authorities award zero discounts for empty properties there is less incentive for owners to report their property as empty. This could have led to some under reporting of some empty properties.