Current Projects

Action on Empty Homes' four key projects:

London buy-to-leave and wealth investment

Our London 'Buy to Leave' and wealth investment project is about London homes that aren't housing anyone. Our starting point was to look at the thousands of London properties bought by investors, who leave them empty to store wealth or to sell-on at a profit. In the second half of 2019, we have been holding a series of public consultation events on what the GLA and the Government should be doing to stop this practice and how this relates to other categories of under-utilised property and homes without residents in London, from so-called 'second homes' to homes used primarily for Airbnb rental.

Community Action on Empty Homes toolkit

We are developing a toolkit resource for local authorities and community groups, to support community-led approaches to bringing empty homes into use as affordable housing for local people. See more in our blog on the projects initial stages.

The Coalition for Community Investment

The Coalition for Community Investment wants Government to champion community-based neighbourhood regeneration through investment to fund improvements to the existing empty housing stock.

Empty Homes in England

Our annual publication with analysis and data that gives the full picture of the national empty homes problem.

If you want to financially support or get involved in any of these projects then please get in touch

Latest

Antony Fletcher - founder of the Empty Homes Agency: 1929 - 2019

Antony Fletcher was the founder and moving force behind Action On Empty Homes and it is with great sadness that we have to report his death.
Homes Without Residents - new report

Our London housing project looks at 'buy to leave' and the impact of wealth investment in residential property. Raising critical questions over 100,000 London homes sucked out of residential supply, the role of Airbnb and so-called 'second homes'. Includes international survey of policy responses.
A new Toolkit for communities and local authorities

Brighid Carey outlines our new project developing a Toolkit which aims to help bring local authorities and communities together into informed, knowledgeable partnerships to bring empty homes into use.
Estimating ‘buy to leave’ in Kensington & Chelsea

Data from the latest Council Taxbase reveals Kensington & Chelsea has the highest proportion of long-term empty homes in London. Furthermore, 10% of the borough's homes are classed as 'second homes'. Chujan Sivathasan uses data from Jonathan Bourne at UCL and draws on Dr Rex Atkinson's work on 'Anchoring Wealth: The grounded impact of international wealth chains on housing markets in London'

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
What we do

Action on Empty Homes campaigns for empty homes to be brought into use for people in housing need. We raise awareness, campaign for policy change, provide advice and research and develop ideas to help bring empty homes into use
Empty Homes England 2019 is available now

Our new annual report on the state of the empty homes problem in England reports the second consecutive annual increase in numbers to over 216,000 and the fastest rise in a decade
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.
Meet the team

Our staff team and Board of Trustees work closely together to ensure that Action on Empty Homes campaigns for change in the most effective way.
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.
Estimating ‘buy to leave’ in Kensington & Chelsea

Data from the latest Council Taxbase reveals Kensington & Chelsea has the highest proportion of long-term empty homes in London. Furthermore, 10% of the borough's homes are classed as 'second homes'. Chujan Sivathasan uses data from Jonathan Bourne at UCL and draws on Dr Rex Atkinson's work on 'Anchoring Wealth: The grounded impact of international wealth chains on housing markets in London'
Homes Without Residents - new report

Our London housing project looks at 'buy to leave' and the impact of wealth investment in residential property. Raising critical questions over 100,000 London homes sucked out of residential supply, the role of Airbnb and so-called 'second homes'. Includes international survey of policy responses.
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.
Accessibility