Scandal of 4000 empty houses in Kensington & Chelsea

3.59.00pm GMT Mon 18th Jan 2010

Homes all over Britain are lying empty for no good reason

Figures released by the Liberal Democrats have shown there are 4,000 empty homes in Kensington & Chelsea and over 760,000 empty properties across England which are no longer used as homes but can be brought back into use with some investment. The Liberal Democrats have set out new plans to bring empty homes back into use, making homes available for people who need them and creating 65,000 jobs across the country.

Under the Lib Dem plan, people who own these homes will get a grant or a cheap loan to renovate them so they can be used: grants if the home is for social housing, loans for private use.

The plans form part of the Liberal Democrat economic stimulus package. In the first year of the new Parliament, the party would redirect over £3.6bn of spending to create jobs and build up Britain's infrastructure.

Robin Meltzer, the Liberal Democrat Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Kensington, said: "Allowing thousands of houses to sit empty when families have been waiting years for a home is nothing short of a scandal.

"The cost of bringing these homes back into use is just a fraction of the cost of building new ones yet the Government is sitting idly by while they fall into disrepair.

"These new Liberal Democrat plans will create jobs, provide more family homes and help Britain on its way to building a fair, sustainable economy."