Empty homes

Why is this data useful?

Although some homes are empty for good reasons, they are generally seen as a wasted resource. Knowing about the numbers, and changes over time, can give insights into the issue and help us direct policy at the problems most likely to make a difference and bring these homes back into use, wherever possible.

Where does the data come from?

This data on empty homes across for England is collated from local authority returns to the Department of Communities and Local Government in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014. Re-formatting the data and releasing it locally helps us see and use it locally to monitor this issue - especially useful in an area of high housing pressure. DCLG's live table 615 includes a sheet of notes about the sources of data used, which are well worth reading.

What does it tell us?

The DCLG data shows us that for the Cambridge housing sub-region, the number of empty homes on the council tax register has fallen over the years from 8,693 in 2010 to 8,240 in 2014. Also, the number of proportion of "long term" empty homes has dropped from 2,976 (34%) in 2010 to 2,342 (28%) in 2014.

Links to data

Get in touch

If you have any thoughts, comment or feedback on this data please do get in touch. To do this, please email sue.beecroft@cambridge.gov.uk If you "tweet" about it, please tag @CambsInsight (https://twitter.com/CambsInsight) as we'd love to see how the data is being used.