Plaid Cymru FOI Reveals 2500 Empty Houses In Wrexham

Thousands of empty houses in Wrexham should be turned into homes rather than allowing new developments on greenfield sites, according to Plaid Cymru’s Carrie Harper.

Cllr Harper, who is Plaid Cymru’s Assembly candidate for Wrexham, said: “We asked the council for information on the number of empty homes in Wrexham and the numbers are quite staggering.

“There are 2,501 empty houses in the borough. Of those 1,191 are long-term empty and a further 1,310 are short-term. There are a further 400 properties lying empty that pay non-domestic rates, including derelict council buildings.

“It seems crazy that, at a time when large-scale housing estates are being pushed on greenfield sites, that all these houses are lying idle. We have thousands of people on waiting lists for housing yet these figures reveal that almost every community has dozens of empty houses and derelict buildings.”

She said the council was working to bring some homes back into use but that it could be painfully slow.

Cllr Harper added: “There are Government schemes that have brought empty houses back into homes for people but we need to speed that process up. We also need to look at derelict buildings that could be converted into housing in our communities.

“Otherwise we’re going to see thousands of houses built on greenfield sites for the benefit of developers rather than local communities. I’m sure we all know of houses in streets nearby that have been empty for far too long. Rather than trashing our countryside, lets’s get these back into use.”

The FOI includes the following data tables, which total 2330 and 392 respectively, a figure of 2,722.

(Pic: One of our stock photos we have taken of houses, not specifically empty ones!)