MORE than 4,000 homes in Cheshire West and Chester are sitting empty, despite a national housing crisis which has left thousands of families homeless.

And newly released figures from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government show that hundreds of properties have been left unoccupied for at least six months.

In October last year, when the most recent count was taken, there were 4,163 vacant homes in Cheshire West and Chester – one in every 37 houses in the area. Of those, more than half were classed as long-term vacancies.

The problem of empty homes in Cheshire West and Chester has slightly improved in recent years. In 2009 – the first year of Cheshire West and Chester Council as a local authority – there were 4,752 empty homes, and the figure peaked in 2012 at 4,967.

The council adds it is actively looking to make empty homes used once more.

Councillor Angela Claydon, Cabinet Member for Housing, said: “During the last financial year our Empty Homes Team brought back into use a total of 250 long-term empty homes. There are around 2,395 long-term empty properties across the borough and each one is a wasted resource that could provide much-needed housing.

“Our Empty Homes Team is keen to work with homeowners to bring empty homes back into use and can offer advice and support. The team is also able to provide financial assistance in the form of an empty home grant or conversion grant.

“Where an owner is refusing to engage with the team it will use the legal powers available, including the use of compulsory purchase orders, which allow the council to take ownership of empty properties to ensure that they are reoccupied but this is always a last resort.”

Across England, there were more than 600,000 vacant properties last October, over a third of which were long-term vacancies.

Polly Neate, chief executive of housing charity Shelter, said that making sure properties were occupied was just part of the answer to the country's housing shortage.

She said: "In the midst of a homelessness crisis it is of course frustrating to see houses left empty. But the fact is that even if we filled every one of these, there still wouldn't be nearly enough homes to solve the problem.

"Decades of failure to build has left us in the lurch – the Government must now get on and build a new generation of social homes where people need them most."

Figures show that 1,816 new homes were built in Cheshire West and Chester last year. In total, 2,034 new homes were created, including those converted from office blocks or houses split into flats.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: "The number of long-term vacant dwellings in England is still lower than when records began, but we are determined to bring this figure down.

"That is why we are equipping councils with tools they need to tackle the issue head on, such as bringing forward legislation that will allow them to double the rate of council tax on those homes left empty for two years or longer."