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The Homes and Communities Agency is planning to fund councils to take enforcement action to bring empty homes back into use.

The HCA’s director of policy and strategy, Trevor Beattie, said it was looking at whether it could use its budget more flexibly to tackle the problem.

Speaking at an empty homes conference Mr Beattie revealed that the agency is planning a trial of the new approach in Haringey, north London.

Haringey Council has identified 50 redundant homes it wants to bring back into use.

Mr Beattie said: ‘We’re looking at the possibility of funding that through the National Affordable Housing Programme, provided that there’s a housing association that can provide a good standard of design and sustainability.’

Mr Beattie also revealed that tackling empty homes would be a ‘key element’ of the agency’s forthcoming corporate plan, due to be published in the early summer.

He said the issue would also be the ‘kernel’ of the agency’s homelessness strategy, due out by the end of December. He added: ‘We see that homelessness strategy as a key lever to make housing associations more proactive in their approach to empty properties.’

Inside Housing’s Empty Promise campaign calls on the agency to provide grant for social landlords to buy and repair empty homes. Mr Beattie said that could be a result of the increased flexibility that the agency was looking for, but stressed that the solutions in each area would be different. He said agency staff would be discussing the issue in each local authority, and how best to tackle it.

He added: ‘For the HCA to invest more in empty homes, the homes do need to be of the right type and in the right place.’