Retired Homes
FINDING OUT THE TRUTH ABOUT EMPTY RETIREMENT HOMES
You might have seen them: retirement flats lingering on Rightmove, reducing in value, often for years. If you’re very unlucky, you may have come into ownership of a retirement home after losing a loved one and then struggled for years to sell the property, perhaps eventually selling it for far less than was originally paid.
Across the country, specialist homes for older people are lying unused whilst housing waiting lists grow, and the housing crises deepen.
It doesn’t make sense. That’s why we’re keen to launch Retired Homes to uncover the truth about these empty retirement homes and to demand policy change.
WHAT DO WE PLAN TO DO?
We plan to undertake an investigation into retirement homes sitting empty across the UK, and to campaign for changes to bring them back into meaningful use.
Action on Empty Homes has been working for years to bring empty homes back into use. We have the knowledge and expertise to research, report and campaign on this issue. We just need help resourcing it.
Launch a new national research project: How many retirement homes are empty? Where? Why? With our years of experience understanding empty homes data, Action on Empty Homes is in a unique position to dig through and analyse the specific data on empty retirement homes.
Create case studies and conduct local deep-dives into long-term empty retirement blocks, including interviews with older people, families, and housing experts. We will be looking for your input to capture the ways empty retirement homes are impacting lives.
Analyse policy and establish campaign demands for government and developers
Develop a public-facing report and media campaign to bring attention to the issue. Action on Empty Homes has extensive and successful experience shining a light on the empty homes issues. Our media reach is huge, and we get attention for the things we campaign on.
WITH YOUR HELP, WE WILL:
Empty retirement homes are a symptom of a broken housing model, and we can’t afford to ignore them any longer. We have indications that older retirement homes sit empty in areas where new retirement developments appear. We’ve heard from bereaved loved ones who have been left with a property they cannot sell and service charge bills they have to pay. In the face of a growing housing crisis, we simply can’t afford any homes to remain empty, especially when these homes may be causing challenges and heartache for the people left dealing with them.
WHY IT MATTERS
“For five years we’ve been trying to sell my mum’s retirement flat. We pay £6,000 a year (£20,000 to date) for maintenance and management costs on an empty property. I believe 15 out of the 29 retirement apartments have been empty for more than 2 years...”
You can help us to raise £10,000 to fund this essential investigation and campaign.
Every donation helps us to dig deeper and to shout louder.
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£1000 would increase our teams’ time to start getting a sense of what’s happening with empty retirement homes
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Supports us to start gathering case studies and testimonials and create compelling campaign materials
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£5,000 would allow us to conduct deep research and understand the geographical spread of empty retirement homes, why they’re being left empty, and what can be done about them.
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£10,000 would give our team the time to conduct extensive research, looking at a variety of local contexts to create a comprehensive report that we can use to campaign for change
YOUR STORY
Do you have a retirement home story to tell? As part of our campaign, we’re collecting case studies and stories from people who have been affected by empty retirement homes, in any way. If you feel able, please share your story in the form below. All stories will be treated anonymously unless we make contact with you to gain permission to share it.
Support the Campaign
