It will be headed by MPs Gwyneth Dunwoody and Andrew Bennett (Housing Today, 2 August).
Submissions will have to remain a closely-guarded secret until the committee decides to publish them, or risk falling foul of parliamentary protocol.
Some 763,000 homes stand empty nationally, with six out of seven in private ownership.
It is understood both the Chartered Institute of Housing and National Housing Federation will take the opportunity to call for a radical housing market renewal fund to bolster failing markets.
Such a fund could be targeted at markets, rather than council areas.
And several submissions are believed to demand that regional government offices take a much stronger role in co-ordinating work on empty homes within the parameters of the government's decent homes policy.
Federation policy officer Aaron Cahill said government proposals to turn around plummeting demand by 2010 was "cutting edge stuff".
"That is a massive commitment from the government, which has obviously acknowledged it as a major issue, but it is also one of the most tangible outcomes of the neighbourhood renewal action plan and it can be measured," he said.
Submissions are also likely to include calls for VAT harmonisation on greenfield and brownfield sites.
Local Government Association policy officer John Austin-Locke said its existing position on empty homes favoured VAT equalisation for new build and refurbishment, as well as ending partial council tax for second homes.
But Housing Today has learned that more unusual proposals include a VAT hike for greenfield sites above and beyond that for brownfield areas, to goad developers into renovating vacant houses.
It is believed several submissions will say that without strong intervention into unpopular housing, backed by significant new resources, the empty homes problem could prove intractable.
One division between submissions could remain.
Not all are backing a statutory empty homes strategy – a measure the government itself has shunned.
Source
Housing Today
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