From Wasted Empties to

Hope for the Future

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National Empty Homes Week 2026 comes at a crucial time for our housing as numbers of long-term empties rise rapidly amid a housing and homelessness crisis ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏

MORE EMPTY HOMES THAN DURING THE PANDEMIC?

National Empty Homes Week 2026 happens next week, starting on Monday 9th March, and we can all play a part. This Week comes at a crucial time, as numbers of long-term empties rise extremely rapidly at a time when we are told that we can build our way out of a housing and homelessness crisis. Surely some of these empties could be used to make a difference?

At Action on Empty Homes we see empty homes both as a sign of what is wrong and as an opportunity to start turning our housing crisis around.

The National Empty Homes Week 2026 webpage is here

In the last year numbers of long-term empty homes have risen by 14% and there are now more long-term empty homes in England than during the pandemic when the housing market was closed.

Numbers of long-term empty homes rose in every region of the country during 2025 and remarkably the level of overall vacancy in London is now higher than in the North East, while the South West is the most vacant region of all.

So in 2026 our main focus is on the opportunity which empty homes represent, to offer hope for the future. Our case studies show what we mean by this. We also work closely, through our retrofit strand of work, with organisations such as Latch and Canopy in Leeds and Groundwork in Manchester, which show not only how empty homes can provide housing but also their impact in offering training and rebuilding communities.

We work alongside organisations like these to support their work and encourage others to learn from what they have achieved - find out how its done by visiting our community hub for resources including our community toolkit with advice and case studies.

SHOW WHAT IS HAPPENING IN YOUR AREA

We welcome other great examples from councils and communities working to bring empty homes back into use, modernising and retrofitting to help local people live healthier, better lives, and highlighting the role that returning more empty homes to use can play in helping to increase the supply of healthy and genuinely affordable housing.

Bringing empty homes back into use isn’t just about positive impacts on household and community health and well-being, it can offer opportunities for work experience and training, and stimulating economic activity to help support local businesses. If there’s a focus on local labour, training in new skills and building local supply chains, this supports local economic renewal and growth - as we can see in the work of Giroscope in Hull.

If you would like to share case studies of bringing empty homes back into use, please email us at info@emptyhomes.com

The problem is getting worse - so the opportunity is getting bigger..

This BBC Report from last week shows how housing and homelessness organisations are coming together, along with the frontline council officers represented by the Empty Homes Network, to call for change and are asking Government to invest in ‘filling’ empty homes.

Since the last National Government programme targeting empty homes ended in 2015/16, long-term empties have risen by 50% nationally and in London they have more than doubled. This February 2026 BBC London report looks at some of the issues and quotes Action on Empty Homes on some of the factors driving the rise, it also includes the latest national data, comparing different regions.

In total, over 1 MILLION homes in England will stand empty tonight. That means 1 in every 25 homes is empty. With over 350,000 people homeless and thousands more struggling to find affordable homes, wasting housing like this makes no sense.

If you would like to know how that figure breaks down (or see details for your area) you can find the data and see an explanation here

National Empty Homes Week is about turning some of this bad news into good news.

Each year, National Empty Homes Week demonstrates the great work Councils and communities are doing to bring wasted empties back into use and to take action on the empty homes having a negative impact on their neighbourhoods. It offers a focus and allows us all to ask are we doing enough and can we do more?

At Action on Empty Homes we use the opportunity to back councils in calling on Government to improve local authority powers and to back housing targets with investment. We want to reverse the growing waste of empty homes, to start chipping away at our housing shortage, instead of seeing ever more wasted empty homes adding to it.

WHAT TO REMEMBER

· bringing one empty home back into use counts as much towards housing targets as building a new one does

· ‘Recycling’ 100 empty homes costs substantially less in carbon emissions than building 100 new homes. And these are homes that are already built in the areas where they are needed, with the services to support them.

· retrofitting empty homes offers a way to provide safer, warmer homes that are cheaper and healthier to live in. Making a real difference for communities struggling with fuel poverty - it also allows us to build the skills needed to improve all our aging homes and we hope to prevent more becoming empty in future.

CAN YOU HELP US?

During National Empty Homes Week you can support taking Action on Empty Homes by:

SHARING our campaigns and case studies via social media and using the National Empty Homes Week logo to draw attention to the issue and build pressure for change, you can download the logo from the webpage here
FINDING your local data here then talking about empty homes - bring them up in discussions about our housing crisis, ask why more can’t be done. Find out what your local council has to say about the solutions in your area and have your say.
CONTRIBUTING to our publicity by telling us how you / your community / your organisation are working to return empty homes to use and either tagging us on socials or sending us your local updates via email
SUPPORTING us by donating to fund our work - we need support to keep pushing for meaningful policy changes and investment to turn the growing empty homes crisis around - to do this we need your help.
WRITING to your MP about how empty homes in your area could be brought back into use.

Support us

If you agree that empty homes are a wasted opportunity to increase housing supply, reduce our carbon emissions, and create affordable, healthy homes, SUPPORT OUR WORK

How we can help you

Action on Empty Homes offers support for councils, local housing organisations and community groups. Take a look at our work to support communities and learn from great examples around the country.

National Empty Homes Week 2026 is supported by Finders International.

Our free Empty Homes Service supports local authorities by tracing heirs worldwide and helping councils bring long-term vacant property back into use. During Empty Homes Week we’ll host a webinar on our Empty Homes Crisis. Explore our full range of support in our Public Sector Services brochure