HUNDREDS of properties are sitting empty in Bromsgrove each year, while households in the area continue to be faced with homelessness, figures show.

Campaigners say abandoned dwellings should be repurposed to tackle England's housing crisis, after councils across the country recorded hundreds of thousands of empty homes.

Figures from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities show there were at least 720 empty properties in Bromsgrove at the most recent count in October – up 12 per cent from 641 last year.

Of those, 468 had been gathering dust for six months or more.

The figures, which cover properties subject to council tax, also show 82 dwellings in the area were listed as second homes last month.

Different DLUHC figures show in 2020-21, 201 households in Bromsgrove were entitled to council support after becoming homeless or at risk of homelessness.

The Local Government Association has called on the Government to give local authorities greater powers to acquire empty homes.

A spokesman for the LGA, which represents councils, said: “At a time when we face a chronic housing shortage across the country and high levels of homelessness, it is wrong for so many homes to be left empty."

Across England, the number of empty homes – dwellings that are unoccupied and unfurnished – fell by two per cent to 468,000, while the number of second homes dropped by 4 per cent to 253,300 after rising by the same percentage in October last year.

Owners of properties which have laid empty for two years or more can be charged an extra 100 per cent council tax on top of their bill – rising to as much as 300 per cent if the home has been empty for a decade or longer.