WELWYN Hatfield has the lowest number of empty homes in the East of England, new figures have revealed.

There are just 496 unoccupied properties in the borough – out of a total of 72,572 in the entire region. The statistics, which date to October 2009, were released by the Government as it offered new incentives to tackle the blight of empty homes.

Communities minister Andrew Stunell announced last week residents could earn themselves council tax discounts by helping their local authority bring empty properties back into use.

*For more on this story, see next week’s Welwyn Hatfield Times.