The Solutions

If we all take action together we can radically reduce the number of empty homes across the country.

Take action in your local community

Individuals and local housing activist groups have taken community-led action to create new projects to bringing empty homes back into use. Our Community Action on Empty Homes Toolkit can help you understand what is needed to get started and guide you through the process. 

There are many different approaches to consider and partnerships between local councils and communities can make a big difference, our Empty Homes Community Action Partnership project in Reading is an example of one such approach we are piloting. 

Contact Brighid Carey if you want to take local action.

Elected councillors can play an important role

Local councillors have played a crucial role in tackling empty homes by developing strategies to support local communities and individuals who want to take action.  If you are a local councillor or an officer and want to get involved, then email Chris Bailey.

It's time we stopped  building 'the wrong housing'

In recent years one region has seen more consistent growth in empty homes than any other - remarkably this is the London region, which is also responsible for around two-thirds of the national total of homeless families in temporary accommodation.

Yet London has tens of thousands of properties bought by wealthy investors, and around 100,000 homes that are not in primary residential use. Investors may leave homes empty to store wealth or to sell on later at a profit. Some investors use them in other ways which generate a profit without offering anyone a home - this includes 'whole home' year-round Airbnb lets.  Beginning in the second half of 2019, with the support of Trust for London, we launched a public conversation (and commissioned opinion research) on what the GLA and the Government should be doing to stop this.

The results of the first phase of this project were published in April 2020 as our 'Pretty Vacant' report on how wealth investment restricts access to housing in London. This has been followed by our Nobody's Home report in 2021 which launched a campaign coalition to influence policymakers.

We also reviewed the international situation and policy responses around the world, in our earlier publication 'Homes Without Residents'. 

The homes communities want to build

In the next phase of our work on London housing we will be looking at the priorities for communities trying to deal with an acute housing crisis, which worsens every year as we lose social housing and fail to build genuinely affordable homes.

To get involved with the next phase of this project get in touch with Will McMahon or  Chris Bailey.

Rural, coastal and urban, same problem - The Wrong Housing:

Looking at Airbnb, emptiness and under-utilisation

The insights gained from looking at wealth investment in property and at empty and underutilised second homes, Airbnbs and 'buy to leaves' in London, helped inform our work on Manchester housing. This is now being taken forward in projects which will draw parallels between the impact on affordability and access to housing in urban areas and the impacts in coastal and rural areas, which are also hollowed out by Airbnb and by second homes with no primary residential use.

Join our campaign for government investment

We are calling for the government to invest in tackling empty homes. Our call for targeted investment has been supported by a wide range of organisations through the Coalition for Community Investment, read more on the Coalition here.

We have been supported in our call for urgent investment and a review of the powers available to local authorities by politicians, professional organisations such as Propertymark and business such as the Nationwide Building Society who supported our publication Empty Homes in England 2019 and National Empty Homes Week. Nationwide also started a campaign on the issue amongst its members and called for action by the new Government shortly after the December 2019 General Election.

Action on Empty Homes has consistently called for a new national Empty Homes Programme to deliver three things:

• Government investment to tackle the growth in empty homes and bring wasted empty homes back into use
• Changes to planning rules and Government incentives to housebuilders, to stop the building of homes which never house anyone and prioritise the building of genuinely affordable and social housing
• Local authority commitment to support community-led solutions and community-led projects which refurbish empty homes to meet local housing needs.

Please let us know if you want to become a supporter by emailing info (at) actiononemtpyhomes.org

Stay in touch by joining our e-bulletin list.

Our e-bulletins are short and snappy but will keep you up to speed on what is going on both nationally and internationally on empty homes. Email Chris Bailey with 'Bulletin' in the subject line.