Annual Impact Report 2024

Executive summary

This impact report by the Scottish Empty Homes Partnership (SEHP) covers the period 2023-24 and the first year of Phase 2 in our plan. The report draws on survey responses received from 27 councils, as well as national statistics from the Scottish Government, National Records of Scotland, and from activity within our Empty Homes Officer (EHO) network throughout the year.

The SEHP is funded by the Scottish Government, and hosted by Shelter Scotland, with the remit of supporting the Scottish Government’s commitment to bringing empty homes back into use as affordable housing where possible. Bringing these homes back into productive use can be a quick and cost-effective way of increasing housing supply and can play an important role in helping to address Scotland’s housing emergency.

More than a thousand homes have been brought back to use every year since 2018/19 except for the pandemic year of 2020/21.

The total number of homes brought back to use in 23/24 (1,875) was the highest annual figure to date.

To put the achievements into context, it took the first three years of the partnership to bring 100 homes back into use. It took almost another three years for this to increase to one thousand additional homes brought back through the intervention of empty homes officers.

Fourteen years since the partnership began in 2010, we have surpassed five figures with the total now standing at 10,889 homes.

This shows the excellent progress that has been made, thanks to the hard work and commitment of EHOs and others across the country.

It was great to see the work of the partnership and empty homes officers recognised in the independent audit of empty homes carried out on behalf of the Scottish Government. It noted that ‘The most effective means of bringing properties back into use is through an EHO being employed to prioritise empty homes action’ and that ‘it is clear, that this would not have been achieved without SEHPs support and influencing role.’ Although we have made some great achievements, we know that more can still be done.

In the same year that a record number of empty homes were brought back to use, the number of homes remaining empty for a year or longer also increased. This should not be happening at a time when the country is facing a housing emergency.

We are pleased to see a number of local authorities expanding their empty homes service with the appointment of additional officers. We would encourage more local authorities to use the revenue generated through the surcharge on second homes and long term empty homes to employ additional empty homes officers, and to consider grants and loans to help owners bring properties back to use as affordable housing.

There is also more that can be done to tackle the barriers to bringing more homes back to use. We hope that the announcement last year that the Scottish Government will ‘progress work to reform and modernise Compulsory Purchase Orders’ and ‘continue to consider the justification for, and practical operation of, Compulsory Sales Orders’ will lead to changes to the law that will provide local authorities with a range of enforcement measures that can be used effectively to force owners to bring properties back to use where there is unmet demand for housing or where the homes are a blight on the surrounding neighbourhood.

We know that empty homes are the asset on our doorstep. We know that empty homes officers are already doing all they can to bring as many of these homes back to use as possible. We hope that additional resources and legislation will help to increase the number of empty homes returned to use and help to tackle the housing emergency over the next year and beyond.