Meet the team

Our staff team

Chris Bailey: Campaign Manager

chris.bailey(at)actiononemptyhomes.org

Chris joined Action on Empty Homes in November 2017. His background is in communications and community-based regeneration

Brighid Carey: Consultancy and Projects Manager

brighid.carey(at)actiononemptyhomes.org

Brighid joined Action on Empty Homes in May 2016 as project manager to deliver a study focussed on bringing empty homes into use through community-based approaches. Brighid is now developing our Community action on empty homes toolkit as a resource for local authorities and community groups.

Will McMahon: Director

will.mcmahon(at)actiononemptyhomes.org

Will joined Action on Empty Homes in August 2018 to help deliver a new strategic direction to the project. Will has worked in a range of voluntary sector and campaigning organisations including the Child Poverty Action Group, the National Children’s Bureau and the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies.

Our Board

Sue Anderson

Sue joined StepChange Debt charity in February 2018 where she is responsible for media relations and PR communications

Nick Billingham

Nick is the Head of Devonshires’ Housing Management Department. He has been involved in a number of high profile cases impacting on housing law.

Alice Brownfield

Alice is a qualified Architect and Associate Director at Peter Barber Architects, a leading UK architectural practice specialising in housing and homeless facilities. She has also taught at a number of schools of architecture and is currently a visiting critic at The Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University.

Tom Crowley

Our Chair, Tom Crowley, is a Management and Planning Consultant. From 2005 until April 2018 he was Chief Executive of Horsham District Council in West Sussex. Horsham was active in tackling empty homes, bringing many back to use.

Jon Fitzmaurice

Jon is a senior visiting fellow at Cass Business School, City University, and is the originator and director of self-help-housing.org which promotes and supports community-led self-help housing initiatives

Jen Hart

Jen has worked in the voluntary sector for over fifteen years and has held several senior roles in Students’ Unions, and in innovative and member focussed charities in the Higher Education sector.

Andy Ford

Andy Ford joined the Board in May 2019. Andy started his career as a Chartered Accountant in local government before becoming a public sector auditor and then a management consultant focused on public sector transformation. He was a partner at PwC between 2004 and 2016.

Latest

London Housing Campaigners Meeting: Evidence and impacts of 'Buy-to-Leave' in London

Oct 17th evening campaign meeting for local housing activists on 'buy to leave' and wealth investment in London residential property
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
National Empty Homes Week 2019 Sept 23rd - 29th

This year the housing crisis has intensified as long-term empty homes numbers rose by nearly 11,000 to over 216,000 focusing public attention on the problem
Great Places Commission Report seeks investment and end to auction disposals of Social Homes

National Housing Federation's eagerly-anticipated report recommends how we create great places to live. Topping list are investment, national Landlords register, community assets and an end to auction sell-offs of social homes.

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
Accessibility
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.
Support Action on Empty Homes

We rely on support from individuals and grant funders. Want to support us? Then click the donate box at the top of the page.
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.
Publications and Research

We produce four types of publications: Campaign publications advocating policy responses to end the waste of empty homes Reports on active programmes to bring empty homes into use Research and analysis of the empty homes issue. Our annual Empty Homes England report, the only comprehensive annual analysis of official data
Privacy Policy

Privacy policy – last updated 1 May 2019
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.
National Empty Homes Week 2019 Sept 23rd - 29th

This year the housing crisis has intensified as long-term empty homes numbers rose by nearly 11,000 to over 216,000 focusing public attention on the problem
Current Projects

We are developing a toolkit for community-led empty homes projects and working on tackling wealth investor ‘buy to leave’ in London. We are also building a national coalition to call for government investment in empty homes.