NEW figures show that 1,671 homes are standing vacant in the Great Yarmouth area even though the borough council has a waiting list of 5,000 applicants for new accommodation.

NEW figures show that 1,671 homes are standing vacant in the Great Yarmouth area even though the borough council has a waiting list of 5,000 applicants for new accommodation.

The borough has come 12th out of 46 local authority areas in the eastern region in a survey of the places with the highest number of unused properties, published by union GMB.

But Yarmouth came fourth, with 3.7pc, when the figures for each authority were converted into a percentage of the total properties in the area, higher than both the regional average of 2.6pc and national average of 3.1pc.

However, Mark Burns, the borough council's head of community services, said the figures included homes that had been empty for one day, when the council was focusing on properties that had been empty for six months or longer.

He believed many of the homes mentioned in the report were in the Wellesley Road, Camperdown and Southtown Road areas of the town and said the council was already renovating many properties in these streets through the SHARP regeneration project.

“Where there are long term empty homes and people are not trying to get them back into use, these are the ones that we are concentrating on. But where people are making genuine efforts to bring buildings back into use we will help and support them in any way we can,” Mr Burns said.