Nearly 50,000 homes have been left unoccupied across Sussex.

Census data released by the Office for National Statistics shows 47,575 properties in the county were empty in 2021.

Nearly 10,000 of them are in Brighton and Hove, including hundreds of holiday homes.

Data was broken down by areas of the city. North Laine and The Lanes had the most unoccupied homes with more than 1,000 properties empty.

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In Sussex, Wittering and Birdham in Chichester had the most empty properties with 1,325 left unoccupied.

In Brighton, many properties were left empty due to being holiday homes.

Around 1.7 per cent of properties in Roedean and Brighton Marina were said to be holiday homes along with 1.3 per cent in the Brunswick Town area.

Previous figures from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities figures show that 1,695 homes in Brighton and Hove were long-term empty as of October.

The statistics marked an increase from 1,596 during the same period in 2022.

The figures mean the number of empty homes almost doubled in a decade, from four per cent in 2011, when the last census was undertaken, to 7.5 per cent in 2021.