Half a million homes across the UK are being left unused, as the number of families living in temporary accommodation continues to rise every year.

While the Government boasts of efforts to build more houses, campaigners say increasing homelessness shows something is still going wrong.

They say too much emphasis is being put on attracting investors for homes well out of many families’ price range, while what is really needed is more social housing.

Figures from the Ministry of Housing show Cornwall has a total of 16,713 homes out of regular use, the highest of any local authority in the country, accounting for one in every 16 properties.

While 13,642 of these include second homes, 3,071 were classified separately as long-term empty (left vacant for six months or longer), up from 2840 last year.

One in nine homes in the wealthy west London borough of Kensington and Chelsea are out of regular use, with 1,306 long-term empty properties and 9,045 second homes.

Separate figures show 2,275 households in the local authority are in temporary accommodation, meaning they have been unable to secure proper, long-term housing.

10 local authorities with highest proportion of long term empty homes

Elsewhere in the capital, 9,595 homes remain out of regular use in Camden, accounting for one in 12 properties.

These include 8,150 second homes and 1,445 long-term empty properties, while 545 families are stuck in temporary accommodation.

The east London borough of Tower Hamlets has 1,035 long-term empty homes and 7,405 second homes, up 1,165 from last year.

Meanwhile, Manchester had 6,671 second homes this year and 1,455 long-term empty properties, while 2,313 families in the city’s central borough remain homeless.

Chris Bailey, from charity Action on Empty Homes, told Metro.co.uk: ‘Government has praised increased rates of housebuilding, but numbers of both empty homes and homeless families keep on rising.

‘If we are building more homes and both homelessness and numbers of empty homes are still rising, then we are getting housing wrong in this country. We are building the wrong housing to meet the most urgent needs.

‘We need to stop building homes for investors and start building and renovating the homes that we need for the 98,300 families and their 129,000 children who are stuck in overcrowded and unsuitable temporary accommodation.

‘Government needs to back councils with investment and with improved powers to bring empty homes into use, where owners won’t or can’t.

‘Keeping half a million homes empty in the middle of a housing crisis, which is worsening as coronavirus destroys jobs and lives, simply makes no sense.

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