The estate and letting agent professional body Propertymark has marked the start of National Empty Homes Week (28th February to 6th March) by writing to the Levelling Up Secretary, Michael Gove MP, calling on him to provide incentives to owners and landlords of vacant dwellings for bring the empty homes back into use.

The letter, from Timothy Douglas, head of Policy and Campaigns at Propertymark, says that the large number of empty homes in the country are a "wasted resource" and that in a climate where housing stock levels are under pressure from high demand it "makes no sense that there are thousands of homes sitting vacant".

Propertymark's call to action asks the Government to restart the Empty Homes Community Grant scheme - which ended in 2015 and which provided funding for community groups to bring empty housing back into use. The letter also asks that long term financial incentives for owners, such as removing VAT on home and energy efficiency improvements, should be considered as lack of funds is often the main reason that such properties are left empty and that more needs to be done to ensure that Local Authorities can work with owners to bring empty homes back into use. This way, the wasted resource (equal to twice the country's annual new homes target) will actually bolster private rented sector provision.