Over 303,000 homes in England have stood empty for more than six months, yet more than 1.3 million households remain on social housing waiting lists.

Local authorities already have the legal powers to compulsorily acquire empty properties and return them to active use, most notably under section 17 of the Housing Act 1985, but these powers remain chronically underused.

This article explains how the compulsory purchase process works in practice, what the barriers are, and how councils can build the confidence to act.

The scale of England's empty homes problem

The latest Council Taxbase statistics, published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG, formerly DLUHC) in November 2025, record 542,276 empty homes across England; an increase of almost 40,000 on the previous year. When second homes and unoccupied exemptions are included, the total rises to 1,022,433 dwellings not in use as primary residences, representing 3.96% of England's entire housing stock and the highest proportion recorded since before the pandemic.

Long-term empty homes - properties that have been vacant and unfurnished for more than six months - are of particular concern. As of October 2025:

• There were 303,143 long-term empty homes in England.
• This represents a 14% rise on 2024.
• The figure is more than 50% higher than the number recorded in 2016, when the last national Empty Homes Programme came to an end.

Long-term emptiness rarely reflects a temporary vacancy between tenants. It tends to signal deeper structural problems: stalled renovations, probate delays, landlord exit from the market, and viability challenges in low-demand areas. These are homes that have, in many cases, been lost from active use for years.

Why this matters for housing delivery

The housing need context makes these figures especially stark. According to MHCLG data:

• More than 1.3 million households are on social housing waiting lists across England.
• In 2023/24 alone, there was a net loss of 650 social rent homes nationally - 20,560 social rent homes were lost whilst only 19,910 were delivered.
• Rising private rents and a sustained increase in homelessness are placing further pressure on already stretched local authority housing services.

The UK Government's target of 1.5 million new homes during this Parliament is an ambitious and necessary objective. Building alone, however, will take years. The more immediate question for local authorities is whether a significant part of the solution is already standing empty in their own areas.

If even a fraction of England's 300,000-plus long-term empty homes could be brought back into residential use, the impact on waiting lists and homelessness would be real and immediate. Unlike new build, there is no planning permission to obtain, no infrastructure to deliver, and no multi-year build programme to manage. The homes already exist. The challenge is unlocking them; and that is precisely where the compulsory purchase order (CPO) deserves serious consideration.

The legal powers available to local authorities

Local authorities are not without options when it comes to tackling empty homes. Beyond fiscal levers such as the council tax empty homes premium, they have a suite of legal powers that can compel action and, in appropriate cases, result in direct acquisition. The three principal routes are as follows.

Section 17, Housing Act 1985

This is the most directly relevant power. It gives local housing authorities the ability to acquire land, houses and other properties compulsorily for the provision of housing accommodation, including bringing empty properties back into active use. Once acquired, the property can be disposed of to a registered provider, a private developer, or an owner-occupier, depending on local need and circumstances.

Section 226, Town and Country Planning Act 1990

This power enables compulsory acquisition for development and other planning purposes, including regeneration schemes. It is particularly relevant where empty homes form part of a wider area of under-used or blighted land, and can be used where the section 17 power alone does not provide the most appropriate basis.

Empty Dwelling Management Orders (EDMOs)

Introduced by the Housing Act 2004, EDMOs allow a local authority to take over the management of an empty property without acquiring it outright. They can be useful where the aim is to secure occupation rather than ownership. In practice, however, EDMOs are rarely used and carry some procedural limitations.

For the most intractable cases, especially those where an owner cannot be located, CPO remains the sharpest and most direct tool available.

How the CPO process works in practice

Councils sometimes shy away from CPO because of its reputation for complexity. The process does require careful navigation, but it follows a clear and well-established framework. The government's CPO guidance (MHCLG) sets out six key stages:

1. Selecting the appropriate enabling power.
2. Justifying the CPO.
3. Preparing and making the order.
4. Consideration by the confirming authority.
5. Implementation.
6. Compensation.

At the outset, the acquiring authority must gather robust evidence to demonstrate that compulsory acquisition is justified in the public interest. For empty homes specifically, the confirming authority will want to understand:

• How long the property has been vacant.
• What steps the authority has already taken to engage with the owner.
• What the outcome of those steps has been.

Many councils assume that CPO proceedings cannot begin until owner negotiations have entirely broken down. This is not the case. Acquiring authorities can run CPO proceedings in parallel with ongoing discussions; a point that is often overlooked but which can save significant time and prevent unnecessary delay. In our experience advising local authorities across England, this is one of the most practically significant aspects of the process for councils to understand early.

Once the order is confirmed, acquisition proceeds either by serving a notice to treat or by executing a general vesting declaration (GVD). A GVD is particularly useful where owners are unknown or untraceable, as it can transfer title with minimum formality and delay. The authority must then pay compensation, ordinarily assessed by reference to open market value.

The three barriers holding councils back

Despite these well-established powers, CPO for empty homes remains far too rare. Three interconnected barriers explain why.

1. Funding

When a confirming authority considers whether to approve a CPO, it will expect clear evidence of the funding available both to acquire the property and to implement the intended scheme, together with the likely timing of that funding. In an era of constrained local authority budgets, finding the capital to acquire at market value, before any disposal receipts or grant funding can be secured, is a genuine obstacle. This challenge is particularly acute in high-value areas where even empty and dilapidated properties can carry significant price tags.

2. Knowledge and skills

CPO is a specialist discipline that draws on property law, public law, planning, valuation and project management. Very few local authorities retain in-house teams with sufficient depth of experience to run a CPO from start to finish. A defective order can be challenged on judicial review, and procedural error can lead to years of delay and wasted public expenditure.

3. Organisational confidence

CPO requires political will, officer resource, and an organisational tolerance for a complex and sometimes protracted process. What surprises many local authorities is that the legal framework is less opaque than it appears; the more fundamental challenge is often building the internal confidence and cross-departmental capacity to sustain a programme consistently.

Our view: Practical takeaways for local authorities

The case for using CPO more actively to tackle long-term empty homes is compelling. For local authorities considering this route, our practical guidance is as follows:

• Start earlier than you think you need to: Formal CPO proceedings can run in parallel with ongoing negotiations. Starting early protects against delay, demonstrates seriousness to the owner, and keeps the process on track.
• Build the evidence base before committing: Document the property's vacancy history thoroughly, record all engagement attempts with the owner, and have a credible end-use scheme in place before making an order. A well-evidenced case significantly reduces the risk of challenge.
• Explore funding structures at the outset: Consider alignment between Homes England grant funding, local authority capital programmes, and registered provider partnerships. Revolving loan fund models, where acquisition costs are recovered on disposal, can help make the financial case more manageable.
• Engage specialist advisers early: Waiting until a crisis point before instructing lawyers and valuers is a false economy. The cost of getting the process right from the outset is a fraction of the cost of remedying a defective order or responding to judicial review proceedings.
• Consider the whole-system cost: The cost of temporary accommodation for homeless households, the social impact of overcrowding, and the economic drag of derelict properties blighting local neighbourhoods all carry a financial price that rarely appears in housing budgets. A properly structured CPO programme can deliver real public value.