Empty dwellings: the use of council-tax records in identifying and monitoring vacant private housing in England

There is increasing political concern over the issue of empty dwellings in England. Not only are they perceived as a waste of valuable housing resources—at a time when housing demand greatly exceeds supply—but they are associated with social and environmental problems in the neighbourhoods in which they are situated. This concern has culminated in the enactment of the Housing Act 2004 which allows local authorities to force empty dwellings into use as a way of addressing housing need. But although there are national estimates for the number of empty dwellings in England there is a lack of systematically published data on empty homes at the subdistrict level. This paper describes a method of obtaining detailed information about empty dwellings that makes use of council-tax records. A case study for Leeds was undertaken and the results are reported and compared with residential vacancy statistics that are currently available. The results show that this data source is capable of producing statistical information on vacancy at various geographical scales and revealing the nature of empty dwellings at the local level.