Empty Houses

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Finance and Trefnydd – in the Senedd at 2:41 pm on 11 March 2020.

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Photo of Rebecca Evans Rebecca Evans Labour 2:41, 11 March 2020

Yes, there is a variation in success in terms of bringing those empty homes back into use. Hopefully, the work on the CPOs, which I've just outlined, will prove useful to local authorities that have thus far struggled in this area, because we know that some local authorities have felt that they don't have either the capacity or the confidence to engage in that particular area of work.

Council tax premiums are also a useful tool in terms of tackling empty homes and, again, they've been used to different effect and to different levels across Wales. We do know that premiums will be charged on almost 6,700 long term empty dwellings in Wales in the next financial year, and the number of long term empty dwellings has fallen by over 1,000 since the premiums were introduced. So, it certainly is having an impact.