No Use Empty is pleased to be supporting national Empty Homes Week 2021 running from 15-21 February 2021. #EmptyHomesWeek2021
The week is organised by Action on Empty Homes.
The aim of the week is to highlight Empty Homes and the work we and our district partners in Kent undertake to minimise and reduce the number of long-term empty dwellings.
Over the last 5 years the number of vacant dwellings in Kent has fallen by 15%. In the financial year 2015/16 there were 15,470 vacant dwellings reducing to 12,538 in the financial year 2019/20.
NUE has on average brought back into use 511 long-term empty dwellings each year over the last 5 years, as expressed in the table below.
| Financial Year | Long Term Empty Dwellings Back Into Use |
| 2015/16 | 538 |
| 2016/17 | 581 |
| 2017/18 | 439 |
| 2018/19 | 446 |
| 2019/20 | 551 |
| Total | 2555 |
Long -term empty dwellings are those that have been unoccupied for six months or more.
We have currently recorded 334 long term empty dwellings back into use during 20/21. This figure is expected to increase when data for the period January 2021 to March 2021 is verified.
Empty Homes are a wasted resource for the community in times of high cost and pressure on both the local rental and sale markets. Empty homes can encourage littering, fly tipping, anti-social behaviour and detrimentally affect the street scene in their area.
Read the latest No Use Empty Newsletter (PDF)
