A shocking 6,702 Glasgow homes are lying empty.
Campaigners say bringing the properties back into use could be vital helping desperate families find a permanent place to live. Glasgow City Council insists vacant homes are a "wasted resource" and has targeted 52 for compulsory purchase orders in over the last three years.
Details emerged as National Records of Scotland figures show more than 100,000 homes in Scotland have no one living in them, some of them vacant for decades. In Glasgow alone in 2021 6,702 of the city's 319,810 homes were vacant, 2,958 of them long term.
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A council spokesman said: "Empty homes are not only a wasted resource that could be used to address chronic housing shortages but can be a blight on the community by attracting vandalism."
The Daily Record reports an estimated 130,000 people in Scotland are homeless or on waiting lists. and housing campaigners believe the figure could be reduced if the empty homes were put back into use.
Shaheena Din from the Scottish Empty Homes Partnership (SEHP) said: "Empty, derelict or abandoned homes can cause a blight on the local community and affect the quality of life for their neighbours. Bringing them back into use will, in turn, help to address the housing and homeless emergency.”
Last year, SEHP helped get 1,152 empty properties back into use.
Din added: “Some owners are unwilling to return their home to use, cannot be traced or are difficult to engage with. We believe compulsory purchase orders should be used more widely to prevent homes from being left to deteriorate when Scotland desperately needs more homes.”
It’s thought compulsory purchase orders could be cheaper than building houses, with a £25,000 cost to renovate an empty property compared to £120,000 to build a new home.
Nick Harleigh-Bell, of Homeless Action Scotland, said: “Funding councils to take over disused or unoccupied homes and bringing them back into use for the public good is a fair and efficient way of increasing our housing stock for people who desperately need a home to live in.”
The Scottish Government pointed out: “Local councils have broad compulsory purchase powers which can be used for a range of purposes, including restoration of property which may be vacant, derelict or unsafe to bring it back into productive use.”
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