Thousands of homes in Nottingham have been sitting empty for more than six months amid the nation's housing crisis. Recently released data from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLHC) shows at least 4,559 homes liable for council tax in the city had been unoccupied for at least six months at the most recent count in October.
This means the number of homes gathering dust for at least half a year has increased from 4,148 in 2021, an increase of 9.9 per cent. In 2017, there was a much lower vacant housing stock, with 3621 properties counted as being empty.
The need for accessible homes in the city is massive, with more than 8,000 households currently waiting for a council home in Nottingham. Nottingham City Council is only able to provide between 1,400 to 1,600 properties a year, and said a further 6,000 households were annually presenting as homeless.
In Nottinghamshire as a whole there were 14,784 homes left empty, according to DLHC data. Last year the figures were slightly lower with 13,867 empty homes across the county, in 2017 the government found there were 13,268 vacant properties in Nottinghamshire.
In 2022 there were 1,357 empty properties in Gedling borough, 1377 in Broxtowe borough, 1280 in the borough of Rushcliffe, and 1,698 in the district of Newark. Meanwhile in north Nottinghamshire there were 1,335 vacant homes in Ashfield district, 1,902 in Bassetlaw, and 1,276 in the district of Mansfield.
Some houses which have left unoccupied for a long time can be prone to attracting anti-social behaviour and pests, as neighbours of a Top Valley house, which has been empty for 13 years, recently spoke out about the problems caused by the empty property next door.
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