Lloyds Banking Group is calling on the Government to develop a National Empty Homes Initiative to bring long-term empty properties back into use.
In Empty Homes Week, the financial giant said that more long-term empty properties should be repurposed and used for social rent.
Lloyds Banking Group wants the Government to develop a National Empty Homes Initiative in England, backed by a flexible national funding programme.
It pointed out that a quarter of a million residential properties in England are empty, a figure that has risen 24% since 2016.
Repurpose existing empty homes
The UK’s largest mortgage lender said more investment to repurpose long-term empty properties into genuinely affordable homes could be part of the solution in the short term for struggling councils.
David Cleary, managing director of housing at Lloyds Banking Group, said: “We have a chronic shortage of affordable, sustainable, and high-quality housing in the UK today.
“Lloyds Banking Group has partnered with Crisis and is jointly calling for one million more homes for social rent over the next decade to help overcome the shortage that is leaving hundreds of thousands of people trapped in homelessness.
“Repurposing empty homes into genuinely affordable homes for social rent could be part of the solution. We believe that the Government should develop a National Empty Homes Initiative to bring more long-term empty properties back into use.”
Access to housing
Over 8.5 million people in the UK cannot access the housing they need and over 250,000 families and individuals are experiencing homelessness, said Lloyds Banking Group.
It added that nearly 1.5 million households across Great Britain are stuck on social housing waiting lists, and record numbers of households are trapped in temporary accommodation.
Related: Empty homes in England near 700,000
