We are promising to take more action on empty homes following a survey of local residents that confirmed they want more to be done.

A survey carried out earlier this year as part of Empty Homes Week and the Council’s Empty Homes campaign showed overwhelming support (94%) for the Council to get involved in bringing empty homes back into use. The Council has been highlighting examples of successful empty home transformations since February this year, to encourage and inspire local people.

As a result of the empty homes survey and the previous Housing Strategy consultation, the Council will deliver a private rented and social sector improvement plan to tackle disrepair and poor housing conditions, proactively target non-compliant landlords, and take appropriate action where standards are not being met. In addition, the Council is investigating the possibility of providing loans to empty home owners to help bring improvements to properties more quickly.

In particular, respondents to the survey were agreed that the Council should use incentives (79% of respondents) such as loans to help those with empty properties carry out improvements, and also enforcement (81% of respondents) to tackle issues like disrepair and poor housing conditions, to help make empty properties habitable.

On average, there are 1,164 empty properties in Torbay that are empty for more than six months. But it’s the 250 homes that have been empty for more than two years that the Council wants to focus on as the reasons behind this need to be explored.

Councillor Hayley Tranter, Cabinet Member for Adult and Community Services, Public Health and Inequalities for Torbay Council, said: “An empty property is a wasted asset and a potential home to someone who needs it.

“There is a housing crisis in Torbay, with many people struggling to afford a home while others live in temporary accommodation. There is a risk the crisis will impact generations to come. As of July 2023, Torbay has nearly 1,700 households, registered with Devon Home Choice, in need of a permanent home. 

“Turning empty properties into homes not only helps address the housing crisis but is also better for the environment as it reduces the number of green spaces we’d need to build on.

“The results from both our Empty Homes and Housing Strategy surveys show that people in Torbay want us to do more as a Council to tackle the blight of long-term empty homes.

“We now need to do more to tackle this issue and it is clear that we will need a ‘Carrot and stick’ approach to this. The carrot is that we will explore funding streams to potentially enable us to provide loans to help long term empty property owners bring them back into use – though we will need to do some more work around this before we can commit to it.

“The carrot is that we will explore alternative to potentially enable us to help long term empty property owners bring them back into use.

“Don’t forget you can report an empty home either via our website or by calling 01803 208025.”

Key findings

• 94% of residents surveyed agreed that the Council should get involved in bringing empty homes back into use
• 68% of residents surveyed said that they would like to see more information about how the Council tackles empty homes
• 79% of residents surveyed agreed that Torbay Council should use incentives to bring homes back into use
• 81% of residents surveyed agreed that Torbay Council should use enforcement to bring homes back into use
• Once brought back into use, 31% of owners said that they would be interested in leasing a property to Torbay Council

All the Empty Homes survey findings are on our website. 

Find out more about Empty Homes in Torbay