Sign the Manifesto here: http://bitly.ws/oxGh

...and contact your local election candidates to ask them to support the Manifesto too!

Download the Campaign Against Empty Homes Local Election Manifesto Leaflet HERE

Download the pro-forma press release here

There are over 100,000 families are living in Temporary Accommodation whilst over half a million homes lie empty as so-called 'second homes', Airbnb-type short lets, or simply have no permanent residents.

Meanwhile, the wrong type of housing is being built nationwide. Unaffordable to anyone on an average income to either rent or buy, from city centre towers to car-dependent suburbs, many of these newbuilds are sold to global investors via off-plan schemes, ending up as so-called 'Buy to Leave' wealth investments or Airbnbs and second homes, with no permanent residents.

Communities are being broken up as council estates that could be refurbished are being left to decline with many homes empty, only to be replaced by yet more unaffordable new build, often financialised by private developers.

The Climate emergency demands refurbishment, not demolition. Retrofitting long-term empty homes and council estates can help solve the climate crisis.

The Campaign Against Empty Homes Local Election Manifesto calls for Local Authorities to:

1 Resource local strategies to bring empty homes back into use for those who need genuinely affordable, decent and permanent homes to live in.

2 Campaign for national government investment to bring empty homes back into use at council rents.

3 Support community campaigns and groups who want to bring long-term empty homes back into use.

4 Call for stronger compulsory purchase orders and empty dwelling management order powers.

5 Support greater regulation of Airbnb as achieved in Amsterdam, Barcelona and Berlin to stop low-cost housing from being taken out of housing supply.

6 A Vacancy Tax on long-term empty homes based on the Vancouver model.

7 A robust local and national register of residential property ownership and use.

8 The Retrofit First model for social housing to prevent demolition and help tackle the climate crisis.

9 Fair redevelopment to prioritise low-cost homes and provision of an adequate number of council houses to meet demand - not corporate developments that break up local communities.

How you can help - with a few small steps:

We want everyone who supports the campaign to:

a) Sign the Manifesto - visit here: http://bitly.ws/oxGh

b) Share the Manifesto through Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and other social media with

 - election candidates in their borough

- friends and colleagues

- local organisations such as housing campaigns, trades  unions, environmental groups and similar

c) Send to their local press a version of the press release with your local statistics on empty and second homes - you can find a template here 

d) If you are attending election hustings and can print of some copies of the Manifesto, please give it to people at the hustings. There is a copy to download here (see also top of this page)

Help support our campaign work here