What We Do
The Empty Homes Agency was set up as a housing association with charitable status, however we neither own or manage any empty property. The Empty Homes Agency is an independent campaigning charity, which exists to highlight the waste of empty property in England and works with others to devise and promote solutions to bring empty property back into use.
We were set up in 1992 in response to the high number of empty properties and the crisis with homelessness - something had to be done! In the early days we worked on bringing individual empty properties back into use and encouraged local authorities to implement empty property strategies.
Our Mission
The Agency as an independent campaigning charity which aims to raise awareness of the potential of empty homes in England to meet housing need and devise and promote, with others, sustainable solutions that will bring empty homes back into use.
We seek to achieve these goals by working at two levels:
Nationally - by campaigning, lobbying and communicating for policy change
Lobbying the Government and political parties, the Agency presses for changes in housing policy and the law to encourage owners to bring their homes back into use.
Working with the Government, the Agency provides information on the empty homes situation and develops measures to tackle the problem.
Keeping the scandal of empty homes in the public eye, by running campaigns, publishing research, organising seminars and conferences, and holding National and London Weeks Of Action.
Recognising the good work of local authorities and housing associations, by holding annual awards for good practice around the country.
Locally - by providing support to local authorities, housing associations, community group, which want to bring empty homes back into use
Aiding the regeneration of communities, by ensuring their economic stability, through our work with local authorities.
Persuading local authorities to adopt Empty Property Strategies and to appoint Empty Property Officers, which over 200 councils have done and they are bringing tens of thousands of empty properties back each year.
Enlisting the support of the community, by launching the Low Demand Community Support project and the London project.
Supporting owners of empty homes, the Agency can advise owners of the available options for putting their homes to use.
Empty Homes Agency Projects
Environmental Impact Of Empty Homes
This project seeks to gain a better understanding of the lifetime environmental costs of different ways of creating housing. Fundamentally it asks what is less damaging to the environment producing housing out of existing buildings or building new?
The Empty Homes Agency carried out some brief research into this question in 2005 comparing a single new house to a single refurbished home. The results were dramatic showing about 6 times as much CO2 produced from building the new one as refurbishing the old one. There has been a great deal of public and academic interest in this research, but its very limited nature has meant that firm conclusions cannot be drawn. Other questions such as lifetime CO2 costs have not been answered at all. For example, does the better insulation values achieved in new houses outweigh the energy costs incurred in their construction? We don’t know. What is needed is a wider study that more fully explores the potential environmental savings of creating housing supply from reusing existing buildings. This project aims to answer these questions.
Click here to go to the Environment project page >>
LEPOF
The forum serves to share information and develop good practice amongst those who are working to tackle the problem of empty properties inLondon, those involved in front line delivery as well as those developing strategies and intiatives.
Click here to go to the LEPOF page >>
Local Government Support
A central campaign by the Agency for many years has been to encourage Local Authroities to develop an empty property strategy supported by an empty property officer. Now the vast majority of Local Authorities have such a strategy either as a free-standing document or as an integral part of their housing strategy.
We are campaigning to promote the need for local authorities to have an empty property strategy within their wider Housing Strategy and a dedicated Empty Property Officer (EPO) to tackle empty properties in areas where there is high demand. This is a vital element of local authority work and it is very important that it is adequately resourced.
Networking is another invaluable resource for EPOs and we are committed to ensuring that every EPO is a member of a regional forum. We are also in dialogue with the Regional Housing Boards.
Do you know who handles empty property work in your local authority? Without an EPO empties will stay that way. We also work closely with the National Association of Empty Property Practitioners (NAEPP).
Click here to go to the Local Government Support project page >>
Empty Property Hotline
The Empty Property Hotline is run by the Empty Homes Agency, and has been set up to provide advice to owners on their options on bringing their empty property back int o use, but we also take reports of empties from the public who want to see something dobne about the problem. We can also put you in touch with other housing-related organisations.
Click here to go to the Empty Property Hotline project page >>