Council homes empty for more than two months

Council homes in Cambridge are sitting empty for more than two months on average after being vacated by their tenants, according to the city council.

A report published by the local authority said it took an average of 66.7 days to re-let a standard empty home in the second quarter of this financial year.

That timescale had improved from about 70 days in the previous quarter, but remained behind the council's target of 25 days.

Gerri Bird, the Labour councillor responsible for housing, said her colleagues were "working hard" to bring the average down.

The total number of empty homes meant the authority lost out on more than £930,000 in rent payments across the three-month period, the report said.

This includes homes which were awaiting redevelopment or energy-efficiency work, or that were being put on the rental market for the first time.

The average number of days it has taken to re-let a vacant council homes in 2026 is higher than each of the past three years, according to historical council data.

In 2025 the figure stood at 56.2 days, compared with 38.3 the year before.

Bird said the length of time it took to re-let a property depended on the condition a home was handed back to the council in.

"The property may need a whole new kitchen or bathroom and other things like the roof may need to be looked at," she told the BBC.

"I hate to see an empty property like everybody else does."

The council also had 334 live damp and mould cases in the period of April-June, a reduction of 14 compared with the three months before.

A meeting of the council's housing advisory board will discuss the report's findings on Monday.

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