More than a  quarter of a million homes in England stood emply last year, despite an alleged shortage of housing.

A survey by the mortgage bank Halifax found that 279,281 private homes had been empty for at least six months in April 2007. This was  a fall of  9% from the 308,438 recorded in April 2003 but empty homes still account for 3% or more of all homes in 17 local authorities.  The bank called on the Government to cut VAT on repairs to housing to encourage an improvement of housing stock in the most deprived areas.

These 17 areas with the most houses lying empty have a proportion of empty homes that is at least double the average for England as a whole (1.5%) and all lie outside Southern England with the majority - nine - in the North West. This has 61,450 houses lying empty, accounting for 22% of all the empty homes in England.

In addition to the privately owned empty homes there are  85,695 vacant public dwellings in England, accounting for 1.4% of the public dwelling stock. Eight LAs have more than 5% of their public dwelling stock vacant, seven of which are in the north of England.The eight are Walsall,  Hartlepool, Alnwick, Preston, Rushmoor, Congleton, Middlesbrough and North East More.

Martin Ellis, chief economist at Halifax, said: "It is highly encouraging that the number of private empty homes in England has declined by nearly a tenth over the past four years. Nonetheless, it is concerning that the existence of empty homes remains a significant problem in a number of areas, particularly in the North of England. In some cases, the proportion of empty homes is more than double the national average."

We would like the government to extend the 5% rate of VAT for renovating an empty home to all properties vacant for more than 6 months not just those properties that have been un-occupied for more than two years."

Currently, 17.5% VAT is payable for renovating an empty home vacant for less than two years. This means the average VAT payment for restoring such a home is £5,234 - which is three-and-a-half times more than the payment on restoring a home vacant for more than two years, Halifax estimated.

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