More than a quarter of a million (278,000) homes have sat empty across England, Scotland and Wales for longer than six months - and 3,323 of those are in Gloucestershire.

Figures released today by Admiral combine government figures with freedom of information requests to British councils, and reveal where the empty homes crisis is most severe.

England has the most empty homes (216,186), while Wales has the highest proportion of long-term vacants, with 20 in every 1,000 homes sitting empty for six months or longer.

In Gloucester, 11.6 in every 1,000 homes have been lying empty for at least six months. In Stroud the figure is 11.5, in Forest of Dean it is 11.1 and in Cotswold it is 10.9. Tewkesbury has the lowest proportion of empty homes per 1,000 in Gloucestershire - at 5.6. There are 7.5 per 1,000 in Cheltenham.

Gloucester also has the highest total number of empty homes at 650. Figures for the rest of the county are: Stroud 611; Cotswold 481; Forest of Dean 424; Cheltenham 416; and Tewkesbury 233.

In Stroud, an incredible 24 homes have been vacant for over years. Eleven homes in Tewkesbury have been empty for over 11 years, 10 in Cotswold and five in Gloucester. There are no homes in Forest of Dean or Cheltenham which have been empty for that long.

Admiral revealed that Gloucestershire as a whole has empty homes worth £160,331,875. In Stroud, homes worth more than £42,000,000 have been empty for between two and four years. Stroud also has homes worth over £11,000,000 which have been vacant for between five and nine years and homes worth over £6,000,000 lying empty for over 10 years

Noel Summerfield, head of home insurance at Admiral, said: "After seeing reports that the number of empty homes in England had increased in recent years, we decided to look at where housing stocks were being mostly underused by analysing and ranking the proportion of long-term vacancies across councils in England, Scotland and Wales.

"On a regional level, we found that Cornwall has the highest proportion of longer-term vacancies in England, with 25.8 in 1,000 homes vacant for over 10-years. Overall, in London, where housing is at a real premium, the City of London has the highest proportion of vacancies of any borough, followed by Southwark, and Kensington and Chelsea."