National Empty Homes Week 2026 starts on Monday 9th March. The theme this year is ‘From Wasted Homes to Hope for the Future'.
Renovating and retrofitting empty homes provides much-needed accommodation, can increase the supply of low-carbon homes helping to tackle fuel poverty and climate change, improves health and well-being and is good for the local economy. Homes into hope!
See what's going on to transform wasted homes into affordable housing and join our campaign:
/ehweek
See how Action on Empty Homes worked in partnership with North Yorkshire Council, local colleges, Leeds Beckett University and construction teams not only to bring a 3 bed home back into use but to do so in a way that makes the home highly energy efficient, healthy to live in and crucially means that fuel bills won't cost the earth.
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We’re pleased to share that the first of three retrofits in the Craven district REHAP pilot has been completed. What was once a neglected long-term empty home is now a solar powered, energy efficient affordable home for a local person. This project has built community partnerships in Craven and given local college students valuable on-site experience. To learn more about the project, head to the link in our bio! #retrofit
Homes that already exist - in places people want to live - are going to waste. Bringing empty homes back to use to provide stable accommodation for homeless people and people in temporary accommodation could help to target the worst impacts of the housing crisis quickly.
Our Campaign Manager, Chris Bailey, joined an itv News report about empty homes in the southwest. Be sure to check it out!
Gentrification is forcing families out of London, contributing to the decline of key community resources like schools, GP surgeries, and small businesses. Once vibrant communities are being reshaped by new luxury development targeted at non-local investors rather than local people. Local authorities must be given greater powers to control new development to ensure it provides housing affordable to local people rather than empty investment properties.
We were quoted in a recent Daily Mail piece about long term empty homes. As our Campaigns Manager Chris Bailey points out, long-term empty homes should be returned to use to provide stable housing for people experiencing homelessness or living in temporary accommodation. These homes have a crucial role to play in reducing the impact of the housing crisis on the most vulnerable.
Our housing system increasingly serves landlords and investors rather than — and largely at the expense of — low and middle income households. The number of affordable homes declines year after year, our rents go up, and landlords and investors become richer.
We must resist cuts to rent controlled affordable housing and advocate for a housing system which prioritises the interests of everyday people, not landlords and investors.
The decision to open up London’s green belt to new development flies in the face of environmental responsibility and established data and research about how new housing development impacts housing access and affordability in London. The data shows that ever increasing numbers of new-builds does not reduce prices in London. In fact, it raises them. Despite this, the mayor has moved to develop the green belt, while more than 87,000 existing homes sit empty across the capital.
The figures at the heart of the housing crises are confounding. How can this kind of maldistribution go on? Empty homes are an opportunity to quickly and decisively act on the housing crisis, helping hundreds of thousands of people in temporary accommodation to access stable and secure housing in their communities. We must demand action to bring these empty homes into use in order to realise a more compassionate and sensible housing system.
The number of long-term empty homes in England was headed downward, aided by the National Empty Homes Programme implemented by the Coalition government. However, the funding made available through the programme was discontinued by the Conservative Government in 2016. Since then, the number of long-term empty homes has continued to climb.
A new national empty homes programme is needed to bring long-term empty homes under control. By making meaningful funding available for councils and communities to work together to return empty homes to use, a new national empty homes programme could provide a catalyst to addressing residential vacancy while building local partnership and capacity.
Short-term vacation lets are hollowing out highly touristed areas across the country, driving out locals as housing prices increase and the number of empty vacation rentals increases. In the UK, ghost enclaves — areas with more greater than 25% vacancy — run up and down the coast, as well as in the midlands and Scotland. The “Airbnbificafion” of beloved destinations is killing them. Do your part and avoid using an #unfairbnb when traveling.
Vacancy has risen across the country since the end of the national empty homes programme in 2016. Hundreds of thousands of homes across England — including thousands of homes owned by councils — are sitting empty on a long term basis while housing prices and rent continue to go up. This is a situation in which the whims of investors have been prioritised over the basic needs of everyday people. This cannot continue. #actiononemptyhomes
