Number of empty homes highest in more than a decade

Scottish Liberal Democrats have today accused the SNP of “a massive failure” to tackle Scotland’s housing crisis after new statistics revealed that the number of homes lying empty for more than twelve months has reached the highest level in more than a decade.

The latest Scottish Government statistics on empty properties show that there has been a 12% increase in long-term empty homes, referring to homes which have been empty for more than 12 months. This is the highest rate of long-term empty properties since 2013.

The government has also published figures on local authority vacant housing stock, which reveals that 5,640 homes used for permanent lettings are vacant. 10% of stock used for temporary accommodation for homeless households is vacant, an increase of 7% since last year.

These figures come on the same day as new housebuilding statistics revealed a decrease in the number of housebuilding completions across the private and social sectors, dropping to their lowest levels since 2018 and 2017 respectively. There was also an 8% decrease in starts and a 22% decrease in completions in the affordable housing supply scheme.

Scottish Liberal Democrat housing spokesperson Paul McGarry said:

“Under the SNP, there has been a massive failure to tackle Scotland’s housing crisis.  

“Tens of thousands of homes are lying empty and affordable housebuilding has collapsed. This all while the number of people sleeping rough shoots up to record levels. That is just palpably wrong.

“The SNP have made things worse by previously slashing the housing budget by a quarter and failing to build the thousands of homes they promised for social rent.

“Scottish Liberal Democrats want to bring thousands of empty homes back into use, maximising existing buildings and stock, as well as building more homes and re-establishing social rent as a viable, long-term option.”