Empty Dwellings: The Use of Rating Records in Identifying and Monitoring Vacant Private Housing in Britain

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Abstract
In recent years there has been growing political concern with questions of effective stock utilization and the issue of empty housing. However, our knowledge of the scale and nature of the problem remains limited, particularly as regards the private sector. There is a dearth of reliable information on privately owned vacant property, which undermines local policy responses. One source of information which is available to local authorities are local rating records, which are often used as the basis for calculating a void rate. However, in this paper it is shown, by reference to recent work in one inner London borough, that such records are likely to provide a serious underestimate of the problem. In their present form, rating records, though potentially valuable, are a far from adequate data source for identifying and monitoring vacant private-sector dwellings.

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