AS the country gears up to build its way out of the housing crisis new statistics show how many homes are empty in Worcestershire districts.
An analysis of official figures by the BBC shows Redditch has 127 empty homes which is 2.35 per square kilometre, Bromsgrove has 206 or 0.95 per square kilometre and Wyre Forest has 267 vacant properties which is 1.37 per square kilometre.
The average in England is 1.82 empty properties per square kilometre.
Bromsgrove and Redditch are both in the top 10 English authorities for reducing the number of empty properties in their areas since 2010.
There are several reasons why homes are left empty: rising repair bills, speculators buying homes to sell for a profit later or just because people don't want to live in rundown areas.
Authorities have the power to double council tax on homes which are vacant for more than two years, they can temporarily take control of empty homes to rent them out or buy them outright under a Compulsory Purchase Order.
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