MEDIA
ARTICLES
Seaside resorts and holiday destinations risk becoming "dead towns" if money is not spent providing homes for people living and working in the local area, a charity warns.
Abandoned properties are on the rise. What can be done to bring them back into use?
Chris Bailey, national campaign manager at campaign group Action on Empty Homes, said communities are now being ‘hollowed out’ as they no longer have a year-round economy.
‘With a visitor economy you lose the availability of affordable housing for young people to start families,’ he said.
TELEVISION & RADIO
Following work in Bristol we appeared in an ITV TV News report addressing the waste of vacant homes in the South West, England’s most vacant region. It looks at why council’s need better powers - web version includes South West vacancy data maps and video reports with Chris Bailey and with Bath and NE Somerset’s Empty Homes Officer Debbie Freeman.
See the report here
Chris Bailey appeared on a ‘panel’ piece on BBC discussing how housing was a key election issue for voters. He explained the role of empty homes in the housing crisis.
Our data analysis and work appeared on Radio 4’s File on 4 show, Ghost Houses.
Simon Maybin investigates the phenomenon of empty homes and, over nine months, follows the work of someone trying to turn unused properties into homes for families among the record numbers who are now homeless.
Media Contacts
We can answer enquiries about the latest empty homes data, analysis of the data, and empty homes issues generally, including commentary on second homes, short-lets and what can be done to bring long-term empty homes back into use, including how retrofit can produce homes that are cheaper and healthier to live in. Increasing vacancy at a time of rising homelessness and shortage of affordable housing poses questions that we can answer Please get in touch.
Recent Media Releases
14th November 2025 MEDIA RELEASE the 2025 Council Taxbase data release was a gamechanger showing long-term empty homes rising by 14% in a year to above the level in the pandemic when the housing market was closed, they rose across all regions and all categories. The fastest rise of 23% was in London, the most vacant region overall was the South West. Remarkably vacancy in London is now higher than in the North East region. Since the last national empty homes programme ended in 2016, long-term empty homes in England have risen by over 50%.
13th November 2024 MEDIA RELEASE in response to the 2024 Council Taxbase data release showing that empty homes have risen again across all categories.
15th May 2024 MEDIA RELEASE for our report in partnership with University of Sheffield and funded by abrdn on the rural and coastal housing crisis, identifying‘ghost enclaves’ of low-use homes. You can read the full report here.
4th March 2024 MEDIA RELEASE for National Empty Homes Week - in the face of such a desperate housing shortage every empty home matters.
8th November 2023 MEDIA RELEASE Government data released today shows numbers of long-term empty homes rise in EVERY region of England - Over 260,000 wasted long-term empty homes as homelessness peaks
9 November 2022 MEDIA RELEASE Government data released today shows numbers of long-term empty homes rise in almost every region of England
For empty homes data in local authority areas and where most homes are empty and the biggest rises in empty homes see here.