A Norfolk MP has raised concerns that nearly 1,000 homes are sitting empty in a district while families are housed in temporary accommodation.
Terry Jermy, MP for South West Norfolk, raised the issue at a meeting of Breckland Council after the figures were revealed in an official report.
Mr Jermy expressed his alarm at the ‘stark’ data highlighting hundreds of empty homes in towns and villages in the district.
MP Terry Jermy has opposed the plans. Picture: UK Parliament
This is despite dozens of homeless families having to be housed in temporary accommodation, at great expense to the council.
Breckland Council revealed there were 974 empty homes across the district as of October 2024.
The authority said it was ‘actively seeking’ to address housing needs and was overhauling its tax policies to encourage more homes into use.
These changes mean homeowners will be charged double the normal Council Tax charge if the property has been empty for more than a year, with the current threshold set at two years.
The report also highlighted 552 second homes across the district, which will be charged the same Council Tax premium.
Terry Jermy, local MP and member of the council, said he was ‘very disappointed’ by the figures.
He said: “These numbers are quite stark to me and I want to understand whether this is a growing problem.
“I hope the council is using all the levers available to us to bring those figures down and using legislation to its full extent.
“We could address issues with temporary accommodation relatively easily if we actually tackled a proportion of empty and second homes.”
The report also showed around 140 families per night are required to be housed in emergency accommodation by the council.
Breckland, Great Yarmouth and North Norfolk District Council are the worst-affected areas in the county for child homelessness, according to recent data.
Phillip Cowen, cabinet member for finance, said the authority could ‘take a horse to water’ but was limited in the extent it could encourage people not to leave properties empty.