Supported by Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Action on Empty Homes has undertaken a three-year project to look at an approach to bringing empty homes into use that ensures the process of renovation itself is a vehicle for engaging and rebuilding communities, for developing skills and confidence, supporting vulnerable and excluded households, and by doing so addressing, in a lasting way, the underlying issues, breaking the cycle of decline.

In this report – “Community action on empty homes” – we share our learning from studying six demonstration projects, each at different stages of development but all employing community-based approaches to bringing empty homes into use. We aim to encourage others to form community-based partnerships, to bring empty homes into use for local people and through doing so to help address the persistent underlying issues that keep people locked into poor housing and locked out of a safe, secure and affordable home.