A LEADING union has called for urgent action to tackle housing waiting lists by targeting the blight of empty homes in East Lancashire.

The GMB said that nationally of 765,000 vacant houses across England and Wales, just 5,000 had been bought in the past year for social housing even though the Government has made £200 million available.

In East Lancashire has one of the highest proportions of empty homes in the country and also big waiting lists for social houses.

According to latest figures, there are 3,217 empty homes in Blackburn with Darwen, 2,686 in Burnley and 1,407 in Chorley.

Hyndburn has 2,041, Ribble Valley 819, Pendle 2,757 and Rossendale 1,606.

Shadow housing minister Grant Shapps claimed the number of households on social housing waiting lists in Lancashire had increased from 17,527 to 23,012 in the past 10 years.

In East Lancashire around five per cent of homes lie empty but the average in England is 3.1 per cent.

General secretary Paul Kenny said there was an “enormous” social housing waiting list and complained of a lack of action.

He said: “This reflects the extent to which in many parts of the country, elected councillors and the senior officers are socially removed from the detrimental effects on families of the lack of decent housing.

“Since the money is being made available by central Government to acquire more social housing the problem we are dealing with is political and ideological.

“GMB is calling on community and other organisations to mobilise people on the waiting lists to get action on this issue.”

Some councils in East Lancashire, including Blackburn with Darwen and Burnley, have attempted to solve the problem by adopting empty property strategies to track down landlords and encourage them to bring houses back into use.