The number of long-term empty homes in England rose by more than 5% last year to 216,186, with a number of highly-populated districts still reporting vacant units numbering in the thousands.

Data from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government showed that outside London, Birmingham had the highest number of empty homes at 4,283, level with 2017’s figures, while in the capital the number of long-term empty homes rose 11% to 22,481.