Our campaigns
Action on Empty Homes campaigns to bring empty homes across England back into use.
The issues surrounding empty homes are nuanced, but our key campaign areas are laid out below:
Recycle empty homes
There are 700,000 unfurnished, effectively abandoned empty homes in England. With just these homes alone we could eradicate homelessness twice over. Rather than building unsustainable numbers of expensive new-builds, we need to bring existing empty homes back into use. This is both an essential response to the housing crisis and a crucial step to achieving net-zero by 2050.
Taking action on our existing empty homes involves putting the right policies in place and getting our neighbours involved. Community organisations across England are already working to retrofit empty homes and return them to use as truly affordable housing for local people - these grassroots efforts need the support of local councils, who in turn need support from the government to be able to provide the funds and resources needed for communtiy-based empty home retrofitting.
Stop building empty homes
Between 2022-23, only 27% of all new homes built in England were affordable. Developers are constructing more and more high-end new builds because they know that’s how they can make the most profit. Most of us can’t afford the homes being built these days, so they end up remaining empty, gaining asset value for their wealthy owner or serving as a short-term holiday rental.
The practice of building homes that aren’t homes is puzzling. But wealth investment in housing has remade homes into financial assets for the rich. We must take action to prioritise the social value of housing and ensure that when new housing does need to be built, it is the right kind of housing - housing accessible to local people.
Cancel unfair BnBs
Short term vacation rentals are carving out the housing stocks of highly touristed areas in England and around the world. Weekend getaways should not come at the expense of local people’s access to housing, yet the increasing numbers of homes turned into short-term vacation rentals is vastly shrinking the housing available in certain areas and driving up housing prices to boot. This is another example of how our homes are being appropriated to further enrich the already well-off.
We need to curtail the unsustainable growth of short-term holiday rentals and restore access to housing for local people. There are other more sustainable ways to vacation that don’t involve keeping locals out of stable housing - such as staying in hotels.
We campaign for change
There is no silver bullet to resolve the housing crisis. Our campaigns encompass an array of solutions that work on different levels in different ways. Here are some of the key proposals we have in mind:
A dedicated National Empty Homes Programme in England
We need a new National Empty Homes Programme that devolves funding to local councils so that they may offer incentives to owners of empties to bring them back into use. We had such a Programme between 2012-2015 and it was successful. It should be brought back.
A recent press release calling for this can be seen here.
‘No fault’ EDMOs and other local authority Tools
Expanded and stronger powers for local authorities to help to bring empty homes back into use. Our immediate focus is on Empty Dwelling Management Orders. These were brought into use in 2006 and were basically immediately watered down in terms of scope. They are now incredibly difficult and onerous for councils to put into force. You can read more about EMDOs and what makes them very underused here.
Regulations on second homes and holiday lets
There needs to be better regulations in place to halt the huge increase in second homes and short let properties which are depleting our housing stock. Our reports, Nobody’s Home and Pretty Vacant Manchester highlight our the finacialisation of housing in London and Manchester respectively are driving up prices and driving down accessible supply. You can read our press release on the issues and campaign messaging here.