Empty Homes Review

Cleanse your long-term empty property records to improve Council Tax billing, housing intelligence and audit compliance.

Strengthen your data and improve outcomes

Long-term empty property data underpins housing strategy, Council Tax charging, and service planning. However, property records are often outdated, incorrect, or poorly verified, leading to missed income, flawed insight, and reputational risk.

Our Empty Homes Review service helps councils cleanse their Council Tax base, correct misclassified properties, and strengthen data for both billing and policy purposes. It is a fully managed, low-touch review that improves financial, housing, and compliance outcomes.

Helping you improve accuracy and reduce risk

Improve data quality

Identify and correct long-term empty records that are no longer valid

Increase Council Tax income

Remove incorrect exemptions or apply premiums to reclassified homes

Support housing strategy

Provide accurate data to inform policy, planning, and housing allocations

Strengthen audit assurance

Evidence-backed records support compliance with CTB1 reporting

Reduce internal pressure

Liberata manages contact, verification, and record updates

Fair and resident-friendly

All changes are supported by evidence and sensitive communication

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Designed for accuracy, not assumptions

We use Council Tax data, property records and multi-channel resident contact to verify the status of each property listed as long-term empty. Where occupancy or usage has changed, we work with the resident or owner to confirm the details and only recommend changes with supporting evidence.

This protects genuine empty property claims while removing inaccurate records. It also helps councils apply premiums or initiate housing support where appropriate.

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Supporting councils in practice

“Our latest Empty Homes Review was another seamless process of working in partnership with a well-established, efficient, and trustworthy supplier. The review generates income for the Council and ensures our Council Tax records are updated with accurate and timely information.”

Gary Muskett

Assistant Director: Revenues & Benefits, Central Bedfordshire Council.
Read the full case study
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Why choose Liberata

We have delivered Council Tax and property-based reviews for councils across the UK — helping increase revenue, improve housing data, and strengthen audit confidence.

Our Empty Homes Review is available on a simple fixed-price model based on outcomes. It can be delivered as a one-off project or part of a wider income and data improvement programme.

This service is part of our On-Demand Support Services for Local Authorities.

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Talk to us about how our Empty Homes Review can help you cleanse your records, support housing strategy, and strengthen Council Tax performance.

As a Council we are focused on ensuring that the services delivered are both sustainable and of the highest quality. We are delighted to be working with Liberata to help deliver these services on behalf of our residents and businesses. Liberata stood out with its ability to drive transformational change and improve customer access and digital services.
Richard Baker
Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council
Borough of Broxbourne
Liberata is the ideal delivery partner to help us achieve our aims, whilst ensuring we can drive down processing times and improve the service for our customers. Council tax and business rates collection will improve, ensuring that we have the funds to deliver the vital services that have a positive impact on residents’ lives. We look forward to working closely in partnership with Liberata to help achieve our aims
Rebecca Keene
Broxbourne Borough Council
Eastleigh Borough Council
Eastleigh Borough Council has worked with Liberata for a number of years who undertake the council's empty home reviews, and I must say, their service exceeded all expectations. From start to finish, they demonstrated professionalism, efficiency, and a genuine commitment to addressing this critical issue in our community. Thanks to Liberata, the council has been able to maximise our empty home bonus year on year. This positive impact on our community cannot be overstated.
Kerrie Thomas
Eastleigh Borough Council
Leicester City Council
The RV Finder service from Liberata has really helped us ensure that our data is as accurate as possible and, when the VOA has processed the outstanding cases, I fully expect to see more than £1,000,000 of additional RV. The “risk and reward” model works well and the Council only has to pay for their success and the service is something that we will use on a regular basis.
Steve King
Leicester City Council
Liberata has been empowered to create a seamless integration with technology to digitally transform the Revenues and Benefits service whilst trying to protect local jobs. The joint strategy has helped to deliver innovative solutions that have exceeded expectations, whilst providing savings to the authority. This surge in digital engagement has helped deliver strong year one outturn with electronic billing and the technology will enable us to show improvements in the benefits speed of processing and in Council Tax processing of moves, discounts and exemptions.
Andy Stevens
Swindon Borough Council
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