Our demonstration projects

Action on Empty Homes has a major project to spread community-based regeneration in areas with high levels of empty homes.

We are following six demonstration projects where community-based organisations are bringing empty homes into use.

The six demonstration projects are:

Cultures CIC working in Stockton on Tees - see more here
East Midlands CLH working in the Sincil Bank area of Lincoln - see more here
Giroscope Ltd working in Kingston upon Hull - see more here
Groundwork Greater Manchester working in Rochdale - see more here
Methodist Action North West working in Darwen, Lancashire - see more here
North Ormesby CLT working in Middlesbrough - see more here

We want to understand what works, as well as the challenges they face.

We aim to share their experiences, to encourage other organisations and areas to look at how community-based regeneration could work in their neighbourhoods.

You can read or download both the initial report on this project and the concluding report 'Community Action on Empty Homes' published on May 2nd 2019. This practical report includes recommendations and reviews learning from the full three-year research project, during which we followed the work of the six case study projects. Just click the document images below to view and download the reports as pdfs:

Film from HuffPost:

For an alternative look at how community-led organisations can bring empty homes back to use, with benefits for the whole community, see this recent HuffPost film featuring the great work of Canopy Housing in Leeds, creating homes from empty homes. The film also features a look at the wider picture from Action on Empty Homes, which covers the issues which unite empty homes in high and lower value markets around the country: https://bit.ly/2RHCWGY

For local authority officers working on empty homes:

Our Legal Toolkit looks summarises the powers and solutions available to local council officers taking enforcement action against homes left empty, it includes case studies to show how particular enforcement powers operate under current legislation, it is available for free download, here: 'Legal Toolkit: How to use the law to best effect to get empty homes back into use: a short guide on the legal options available to local authorities'

Latest

Why is vacancy and under-utilisation of housing growing in Greater Manchester when the region faces a housing crisis?

Empty homes numbers are growing across Greater Manchester. In the City 'second home' numbers rose tenfold in a decade. Why is this happening at the time of an acute housing crisis ? Chris Bailey - Action on Empty Homes author of 'Empty Homes in England'; Dr. Richard Goulding, co-author of ‘From Homes to Assets Housing financialisation in Greater Manchester'; Dr. Luke Yates, author of ‘The Airbnb 'movement' for deregulation’
Big Issue founder Lord Bird backs Campaign Against Empty Homes Day of Action Oct 9th

John Bird founder of The Big Issue explains why he is backing the Campaign Against Empty Homes and the Day of Action on October 9th "Let’s fill those empty homes," Lord Bird says "The phrase ‘no brainer’ might have been invented for this"
Sign our Call to Action for a Retrofit Revolution

Centralised approaches alone cannot deliver zero-emission affordable housing or reverse the tide of fuel poverty. We also need local solutions. Action on Empty Homes convened an expert panel to ignite our Call to Action for a Retrofit Revolution. Event playback is now available on Youtube.
Nobody's Home

Our new report on London housing and how wealth investment fuels London's failed development model and locks Londoners out of decent affordable housing

How do I find the owner of an abandoned property?

Action on Empty Homes does not have the capacity to assist individuals or property developers in locating the owners of individual empty properties, but we can access expert advice for you and there are a number of ways in which the owner may be located, these are listed here:
Facts and figures

Government publish data on vacant dwellings for each local authority and for England as a whole. Action on Empty Homes publishes the most authoritative guide to empty homes data and each year we analyse the official data on long-term empty homes, producing the only comprehensive analysis of this data.
National Empty Homes Week 2021 starts with call for action on massive rise in empties

National Empty Homes Week 15 – 21 Feb: Action on Empty Homes calls for Government action on escalating numbers of long-term empties . Numbers rose in 9 out of ten council areas. The 42,540 rise in 2020 was the fourth successive annual rise in numbers, but larger than the previous three years’ rises combined.
October 9th 2021 Day of Action - We are in a climate, health and housing emergency!

On Saturday 9th October 2021 the Campaign Against Empty Homes, a coalition Action on Empty Homes is part of, held a national Day of Action to highlight the waste of empty homes across England. You can watch it on Youtube here: https://youtu.be/JpnSAtEDZS4
Current Projects

From our new toolkit for community-led empty homes projects to work tackling wealth investor ‘buy to leave’ and the Global Empty Homes Network; and a national coalition calling on Government to invest to save.
Massive 20% rise in empty homes up over 42,000 to 268,385 while 100,000 families are stuck in Temporary Accommodation

Government data released today shows a massive year on year rise of over 42,000 to a total of 268,385 long-term empty homes in England, as nearly 100,000 families languish in temporary accommodation. This is the biggest rise since current records began.
Community Action on Empty Homes Toolkit

Our new Toolkit is designed to encourage partnerships between local councils and communities to bring empty homes back into use, to meet local housing needs.
Why empty homes matter

There are over 216,000 homes long-term empty when England needs over 300,000 additional homes each year. Bringing long-term empty homes back into use will also help rebuild neighbourhoods and make environmental sense.
Publications and Research

We produce four types of publications: Campaign publications advocating policy responses to end the waste of empty homes Research and analysis of the issue including Empty Homes in England, the only comprehensive annual analysis of official data Reports on active programmes to bring empty homes into use Practical toolkits to support those working in the field
The solutions

We believe in community-led action to tackle empty homes, encouraged by active local authorities to support grassroots initiatives, underpinned by a government investment strategy to bring long-term empties back into use.