Councils were invited to bid for the funding and the Government has awarded 20 councils a total of £60m to help bring empty homes back into use. Voluntary and community groups across the country have also been awarded £25m to tackle individual empty properties in their area.
The funding has been made available from the Clusters of Empty Homes Fund and the 20 successful bids were chosen from local authorities whose bids offered value for money proposals and match funding, with a strong backing from local communities, the Government said.
Despite the number of long term empty homes being at their lowest level since 2004 there are still 720,000 empty homes across England, and Stunell said there is still more to do to solve the problem.
"The number of empty homes in this country is a national disgrace - for every two families that need a home there is one standing empty. Empty homes bring down a neighbourhood and attract vandals and fly-tipping, as well as being a waste of much needed housing," said Stunell.
"I'm delighted to announce this funding boost today that will allow councils and community groups to bring these houses back to life," he said."We need to do much more to tackle this problem."
The Government has already implemented a number of measures to tackle the problem of empty homes and this announcement brings the total investment in empty homes to £215m. TV presenter George Clarke has been appointed as an independent adviser to the Government on empty homes and an extra council tax on properties vacant for two years has been introduced.
One of the successful bids was from a group of 10 local authorities in the Greater Manchester area which pledged to tackle clusters of empty homes across the area by utilising early intervention and advice for owners, matching owners of empty homes with investor landlords, bringing about environmental regeneration and pioneering an enforced sales process.
Community and voluntary organisations have also had the opportunity to bid for £25.8m of funding, which was awarded to "innovative schemes" around the country that have often struggled to be involved or raise financing.
"The announcement of this funding is a fantastic step forward in bringing empty homes back into use, especially the £25 million of funding for community and voluntary groups," said George Clarke. "It's now up to these organisations to think creatively using new forms of procurement like home steading, sweat equity and apprenticeship schemes to make every penny stretch as far as possible."
"This is an amazing opportunity to rethink the way we refurbish our existing housing stock in Britain and for communities to declare that empty homes are unacceptable when there are so many families in need of a decent home. Although there is still a long way to go, this is a brilliant start," he said.
