There are almost 1,000 empty council homes in Sheffield

At the full council meeting on December 6, Cllr Dianne Hurst (Richmond, Sheffield Community Councillors Group) asked a number of questions relating to housing in Sheffield.

Among her 13 questions to Cllr Douglas Johnson, the chair of the housing policy committee, Cllr Hurst asked about the number of empty council houses in the city, the average time from becoming vacant to reletting, the number of people being on the rehousing list and how much has temporary accommodation and homelessness cost the council so far this year.

In writing, Cllr Johnson told Cllr Hurst – and the members – that as of November 27, there had been 947 empty council properties in Sheffield – and if those houses unavailable for letting were excluded, the number of vacant properties would stand at 761.

Cllr Johnson revealed that while the council’s target for reletting was 49 days, this year’s average was 98.1 days and in October, for example, the average had been 104 days.

The chamber was told that there were 23,115 households on the rehousing list, but that doesn’t necessarily mean those people are actively bidding for houses or in urgent need.

Applicants are put into priority groups, with 964 currently in the top bands. The average wait time for those to be housed is around seven months but can vary depending on factors such as the number of bedrooms required, location,adaptations.

In July 2022, there were 20,848 people registered but of that, less than half, 8,474, were actively bidding for available homes.

Cllr Johnson also told Cllr Hurst that the cost of Sheffield City Council-owned temporary accommodation was around £2.1million per year and the main homelessness accommodation cost was in the provision of hotel emergency accommodation.

The forecast spend for this year was £6.9m.