Written question WQ83418

Local Government regulations define a home as “empty” if it has been unoccupied for over 6 months. As the process of selling a home can take longer than 6 months, the figures quoted in this answer include houses that are on the market for sale.

Since the introduction of council tax premiums for long-term empty homes and second homes, data on the number of chargeable, long term empty properties has been collected annually. This data is presented in the table below for the period 2017-18 to 2021-22.

Number of chargeable, long term empty properties by local authority, 2017-18 to 2021-22

Source: Council Tax dwellings (CT1) data collection, Welsh Government

Local Authority

2017-18

2018-19

2019-20

2020-21

2021-22

Blaenau Gwent

994

1032

1035

994

949

Bridgend

1105

1194

1231

951

1130

Caerphilly

893

879

856

925

1169

Cardiff

836

900

1671

1592

1718

Carmarthenshire

2705

2844

2964

2883

2845

Ceredigion

797

894

866

867

895

Conwy

1162

1097

1195

991

738

Denbighshire

888

919

742

783

942

Flintshire

838

763

809

879

1004

Gwynedd

1430

1134

1140

1189

1558

Isle of Anglesey

563

449

474

378

433

Merthyr Tydfil

598

625

596

520

556

Monmouthshire

638

654

651

569

715

Neath Port Talbot

1472

1470

1382

1350

1252

Newport

1114

1264

1114

1114

1046

Pembrokeshire

1892

1718

1708

1612

1622

Powys

1378

786

951

975

985

Rhondda Cynon Taf

2706

2575

2467

2212

2401

Swansea

2266

2191

2237

2358

1888

Torfaen

259

287

276

356

474

Vale of Glamorgan

689

696

750

766

939

Wrexham

502

459

466

407

442

Prior to this, the majority of local authorities were not applying discounts and not therefore necessarily recording this information consistently. As such, data for the years prior to 2017-18 are not available on a comparable basis.

However, data relating to the total number of private sector dwellings that had been vacant for more than 6 months was collected for 2009-10 to 2015-16 as part of the National Strategic Indicators data collection.

The National Strategic Indicators were a set of indicators used to measure the performance of local authorities at a national level. Data for indicator PSR/004 (the total number of private sector dwellings that had been vacant for more than 6 months at 1 April) for 2011-12 to 2015-16 is presented below.

However, note that these figures should not be compared directly with the council tax (CT1) data for 2017-18 to 2021-22 provided in the table as they are sourced from distinct data collections with differing underlying methodologies.