Houses for the Homeless

The number of empty homes north of the border has risen to a seven-year high, according to fresh figures disputed by the Scottish Government.

Almost 80,000 properties are lying unused at a time when charities say the country is facing a housing crisis, with high numbers of people living homeless.

The largest number of unoccupied houses were found in Glasgow and Edinburgh, but every council area has hundreds of empty properties within its boundaries.  There were 8,457 empty homes in Glasgow in 2016, followed by 7,662 in Edinburgh and 5,488 in Fife. The biggest increase in unoccupied dwellings was in Dumfries and Galloway, where the number of empty properties has risen by a third since 2015 to stand at 3111.

In Scotland, there were more than 34,000 applications to local authorities from people looking for accommodation between 2016/17.

 Helen Williams, from the Empty Homes charity, said that councils and the Government must do more to ensure that homes were put to use when so many were sleeping on the streets.

She said: “It is worth bearing in mind that many owners of empty homes want to bring them back into use, and this is why advice from local authority empty homes staff can make a difference between a property being stuck empty and it being brought back to the market for rent or sale.”