The Housing Secretary unveiled the proposals on the first day of Labour’s annual conference, as an estimated 300,000 homes across England remain empty

Local leaders are set to be given greater powers to take possession of empty and derelict homes as part of efforts to bring the properties back into use, Angela Rayner has announced.

The Housing Secretary unveiled the proposals on the first day of Labour’s annual conference in Liverpool.

An estimated 300,000 homes are empty across England, with the plans intended to bring more of them back into use.

The reforms to Empty Dwelling Management Orders (EDMOs) come as the Government aims to build 1.5 million homes before its self-imposed deadline of 2029.

EDMOs can currently be used to restore homes for an initial 12 months, and for up to eight years in total. However, no applications have been made since 2021.

Under Ms Rayner’s plans, the amount of time a property must be unoccupied before it can be taken over will be reduced from two years to six months.

Ministers are also focusing on ways to speed up the administrative process that allows councils to seize properties through a tribunal system.

The Government also wants to protect local authorities from having to absorb the financial costs associated with using EDMOs.
Ms Rayner said: “With so many children and families still in need of a safe and secure home, we can’t sit by and allow 300,000 long-term empty dwellings to be left unused.

“That’s why Labour in power is putting the tools in local leaders’ hands to take over desperately needed derelict homes and put them back into use. We’re reversing the Tories’ damaging changes by supporting councils to intervene and use untapped powers to meet local housing need.

These changes will ensure councils can intervene earlier to prevent properties from falling into serious disrepair by accelerating their return to use and simplify the process to empower local authorities to act more decisively and with greater speed.

But we won’t stop there, and we’ll explore further changes to protect local authorities from absorbing the costs they face in taking over empty homes.”

"The black robin now has a population of 350 adults thanks to a pioneering breeding programme"

The scimitar-horned oryx was declared Extinct in the Wild after disappearing from its native range in North Africa.

In 2016, conservationists began returning captive-bred oryx to Chad’s Ouadi Rimé-Ouadi Achim Faunal Reserve, starting with 23 animals. The population has since grown to more than 600 animals living in the wild.

In 2023, the IUCN downlisted the species from Extinct in the Wild to Endangered, recognizing the successful reintroduction effort.

Amazon is expanding payments under its $2.5 billion settlement with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission over allegations that it enrolled consumers in Prime without their consent and made cancellation difficult.

Under a revised court order, millions of additional eligible consumers who used between 11 and 20 Prime benefits in a one-year period can now receive automatic refunds. The maximum total payment for an eligible consumer is $200, up from the previous $51 cap.

As of September 9, 2026, Amazon had issued about $845.2 million in consumer redress. The newly expanded payments are scheduled to begin October 1, 2026.