An anticipated national housing crisis could be prevented by Government intervention to ease the regulatory burden which discourages the use of almost 750,000 empty homes in the UK according to the Residential Landlords' Association.

The RLA - which represents landlords with more than £1.2billion worth of property and more than 30,000 tenancies across the UK - believes that the Government could alleviate the housing shortage with a number of measures which would encourage investment in empty homes by removing costly licensing and simplifying regulation.

RLA chairman Martin Moylan said: "It's ridiculous to talk of a housing shortage in this country when there is so much smaller, potentially low-cost housing which is crying out for investment.

"The Government is creating a disincentive to investment through licensing and over regulation.

"For example, the rising cost and regulation surrounding Homes of Multiple Occupancy (HMOs) is forcing many landlords out of the market altogether. If just a proportion of the houses which are unoccupied or under occupied were used for additional accommodation then the crisis could be eased.

"This Government has said that it wants to encourage entrepreneurial spirit throughout Britain but even in a sector where there is rising demand for properties and living space, people are scared of becoming landlords.

"The only solution being touted is simply to build more homes and build them anywhere - even on greenfield land. But that is not necessarily going to solve the problem of cheaper accommodation in urban areas where key workers are desperate for somewhere affordable to live or provide housing for the homeless.

"Developers are simply using the housing shortage as leverage to secure planning permission to build nice new homes in desirable, previously undevelopable areas of the countryside.

Recent figures released by the Empty Homes Agency have revealed that almost 85 per cent of the 753,188 of empty homes in the UK are privately owned. Almost half of those have been vacant for over six months.

(PARA TO BE MOVED UP IN REGIONAL VERSIONS) In the North West and Merseyside the number of empty homes has increased by 22 per cent while Yorkshire and Humberside has seen a 15 per cent rise.

A worrying number of homes are also classed as being "low demand" meaning that they are in danger of becoming empty.

The RLA is calling for a number of measures which the Government could take to alleviate the housing shortage. These include:

• A faster and less regulatory planning system to make it easier for under used homes to be converted to shared accommodation.
• A removal of the HMO licensing threat which is forcing many landlords to pull out of the market and leave their properties unoccupied.
• A simplified definition of HMOs and the regulations governing conversion - these currently differ with each local authority.
• Providing tax incentives to convert homes that under occupied or unused.
• Removing registration schemes which simply drive up cost and bring over-regulation to the marketplace.
• Change the under 25 Housing Benefit regulation to allow full market rent.
• Change the Housing Benefit regulation to allow full market rent.
• Introduce a culture of training and openness to the Rent Service.

ENDS May 2002