NEARLY a thousand homes in Bournemouth have been lying empty for six months or more, figures show.

Housing charity Action on Empty Homes has warned that empty homes reveal the "stark reality" of the country's "broken" housing market.

In September there were 998 long-term empty homes in Bournemouth - homes that campaigners say could be brought back into use to help families in need of social housing.

That means two out of five of the vacant properties in the area had been sitting empty for six months or more.

In total, 2,356 properties were found by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to be "unoccupied and substantially unfurnished".

The number of long-term empty homes has risen significantly since 2017, when there were 813 such properties - an increase of 23 per cent.

Action on Empty Homes campaigns to bring more empty properties back into use for people in need of housing.

It believes that official figures underestimate the true scale of the problem.

Government statistics do not include derelict properties that could be refurbished, or second homes that are rarely occupied.

The majority of the long-term empty properties were low-value houses in the bottom two council tax bands, which made up 56 per cent of the total.

Action on Empty Homes campaign manager Chris Bailey said that many neighbourhoods at the lower end of the housing market are "blighted by empty homes and under-investment".

He said: "Empty homes are a canary in the coalmine telling us the stark reality of our broken housing market. The time to fix that is now.

"Across England more than a million families are on social housing waiting list, and tens of thousands are in often unsuitable temporary accommodation.

"The Government needs to invest money in getting these homes back into use, particularly in lower value markets, in order to meet the high level of housing need in those communities."

In Poole, there were 514 long-term empty homes in September, and a total of 1,020 properties were found by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to be "unoccupied and substantially unfurnished".

A spokesperson from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: "Local authorities have a range of powers at their disposal to tackle long-term empty homes, and we expect them to use them."

Next year local authorities will have the power to double council tax on homes left empty for two years or more - a premium currently capped at 50 per cent.

In Bournemouth the council charged a premium on 174 longer-term empty homes, and in Poole 84.