Councils are sitting on more than 22,000 empty garages in London, with total local authority stock equivalent to at least 16,000 homes if converted into the average one-bed flat,according to new research by Property Partner.

The data, obtained from Freedom Information requests, revealed 24 out of London’s 32 councils own 53,640 lock-up garages in the capital - shockingly, 41% of them are either empty or in disrepair.

The worst offending boroughs are Ealing, Havering, Brent and Enfield, which have respectively 74% (1,480 empty garages), 72% (1,469), 71% (1,234) and 70% (2,008) garages lying idle.

Interestingly, the research also shows that on average only 45% of those garages that are rented out are actually let to council tenants. For example, the London Borough of Brent rents out just one in ten of its lock-ups to its own tenants. By contrast, Lewisham which has 90% (1,920) occupancy of its garages has let out the majority (94%) to council tenants.