The scandal of council houses in Caerphilly county lying empty for weeks, months and even years after tenants have moved out, has been revealed by Plaid Cymru.
A Freedom of Information request discovered that one home in the borough had been empty for almost THREE years while officers at the Labour-run council decides what to do with it.
The council has said that one-bed properties were vacant for an average of 11.28 weeks, two bedrooms for 13.7 weeks and three-bedded for 18 weeks. But one home has been empty since April 2023.
On January 19, 2026, the number of vacant council homes in the county borough stood at 265.
Caerphilly council also revealed it spent £ 12,277,940 refurbishing empty homes in 2024-25 and between April 1 2025 and 31 December 2025 it spent a further £9,739,008.
Caerphilly Senedd Member Lindsay Whittle featured a boarded up property in First Avenue, Trecenydd, in a video during the Senedd by-election campaign last year. He said he understood that £96,000 had been spent on refurbishing that house which was now occupied.
Since being elected Lindsay Whittle has raised the issue of empty council houses with the Welsh Government.
Lindsay Whittle, a former housing manager, added: “The situation with empty homes is absolutely scandalous and really there needs to be a Welsh Government inquiry across Wales. People are living in B&Bs and hotels waiting for homes to be allocated and the cost of that is, in itself, scandalous.
“There must be a way of allocating homes to prospective tenants more quickly. Really, as soon as a tenant moves out, the council building team should move in to begin any work needed.
“If Labour councillors and officers cannot make decisions, then perhaps they ought to consider leaving their roles. Leaving a home empty for nearly three years is nothing short of a scandal.“If this unnamed property was in London it would have been taken over by squatters!
“If there are issues with the property, as it seems there may be after nearly three years, then selling it on has to be an option. This is something that has happened in the past. I am sure a builder would snap it up and rent or sell it on to a person who is looking for housing,” added Lindsay Whittle, a former leader of the Plaid Cymru group on the authority.
Penyrheol councillor Greg Ead, who has raised the issue previously, said “The council is spending over £12m a year and taking over 11 weeks on average to refurbish these properties to some theoretical and the Welsh Housing Quality Standard which seems to have no relation to reality.
“Meanwhile, hundreds of homeless people in the county borough are waiting years for a home of their own. This utterly ridiculous and scandalous situation must be the top priority of Caerphilly County Borough Council and the next Welsh Government to tackle.”
Caerphilly Council said last year that that under the Welsh Government’s Welsh Housing Quality Standard the number of regulations related to re-letting council homes had been increased from 33 to 44 and it had had a knock-on effect in the time it took to turn properties around.