All property is owned by someone - fact.
There are some properties that are "bona vacantia" where someone has died intestate and not given the property over to someone else in a will, but these properties are owned by the Government and sold usually at auction.
Your best bet is to hop on the Land Registry website
http://www.landregistry.gov.uk/wps/portal/Property_Search and find the property by map search or address, pay the £3 or £6 and get the registered owners details, write to them and ask about the place.
If the registered owner's address IS the empty house then things get silly ....
(but it can still be done)
What do the neihbours know? Is there furniture etc in the house? is it boarded up? is the grass kept tidy?
Also, a year is no time really. Don't get your hopes up :-(