5th March 2024

Spotlight: Action on Empty Homes

For over 30 years, Action on Empty Homes has been shining a light on a scandal that is all around us – even while 250,000 people are in need of homes in England, more than 260,000 homes lie empty on a long-term basis.

Architects play an essential role in tackling the housing crisis, whether that’s designing new buildings or refurbishing derelict ones. But we’re missing an essential part of the story if we ignore the vast array of vacant homes.

From so-called second homes to Airbnb short-lets and derelict properties simply being held as speculative assets, much of our tax and planning laws incentivise homes remaining empty. But Action on Empty Homes have won major campaigns over recent years to change that, producing research-driven reports and achieving policy changes at the local and national level.

They have serious data to back up their arguments. Information about the scale of the problem is available, broken down by specific locations – so for any journalists interested in hearing about a specific country or even town, that information can be sourced.

The housing crisis is an urgent issue that has ramifications for all aspects of our lives, and Action on Empty Homes are at the forefront of this fight.