Corby has fewest empty homes in UK

New data has revealed the local authority had just nine long-term empty homes at the end of 2016 – 31 fewer than the next-best council in Crawley, West Sussex.

In 2011 the borough had 163 empty homes.

Corby Council’s lead member for environment, Cllr Mark Pengelly, says the results are a testament to the council’s work.

He said: “With the introduction of our empty homes officer in 2011 and the close work with empty home owners, we are extremely proud to bring our long-term empty homes figures down to just nine last year, which is the lowest figure in the country and a fantastic achievement.

“At a time when housing across the country is in such demand it is vital that as a local authority we do everything possible to ensure properties within our borough are utilised.

“We are continuing to work with landlords and empty home owners, while at the same time building new homes within the borough to help alleviate some of the housing pressures.

“So far we have built 6,000 properties since 2000, including more than 600 affordable homes – 153 of which are council houses.”

Elsewhere in the north of the county, East Northamptonshire has the highest number of long-term empty homes.

The latest figures show it has 414, compared to 389 the year before.

Kettering currently has 349 empty homes, with Wellingborough having 271.

The only authority to better Corby’s nine was the Isles of Scilly, which has no empty homes, although the population there is little over 2,000 with many properties snapped up by holidaymakers.

Kensington and Chelsea - heavily criticised over the Grenfell Tower disaster and the way it has rehomed survivors - had the highest number of empty homes per square kilometre at 116.58.

The closest to that huge figure was Hackney, with 55.05.

The highest number of empty homes per 100 people could be found in Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria, with 11.63.

In comparison, Corby has just 0.01 empty homes per 100 people living there.