1 million empty homes
(350,000 empty long term)
2 million families in need of a home
About the Campaign
Most of us value a roof over our head more than anything else. For two million families in Britain today this is at best a dream - they can't find a decent place to live at all.
So it seems crazy that right now there are roughly a million empty homes in the UK - and 350,000 of those have been empty for more than six months.
This summer (2011), architect and TV presenter George Clarke began to investigate Britain's housing crisis and set out across the UK to discover why hundreds of thousands of properties were lying empty.
George has found streets of houses caught up in red tape in areas where thousands of people are on housing waiting lists. He's met owners of properties that have been empty for years. And he's met people on the sharp end of the housing crisis - ex-soldiers sleeping on sofas, key workers priced out of the market and families from a professional background forced to give up on the dream of ever owning their own home.
"It's a crying shame that there are 350,000 long-term empty properties in the UK while 2 million families desperately need a home," says George.
"What I have seen has convinced me more than ever that urgent change is needed - and we can't just leave it to the government and councils to sort out our empty homes problem."
Britain's Empties: Some Home Truths
We're currently building 100,000 fewer new houses than we need every year.
The coalition announced in October 2010 that they would make £100 million of funding available to bring empty homes back into use. In the housing strategy (launched November 21st 2011) they announced a further £50 million to tackle some of the worst concentrations of empty homes. It is important that this money is used in innovative and efficient ways to maximise its impact - and not just handed out to the usual suspects.
Over 88% of Britain's empty homes are privately owned and any solution to the problem needs to address these owners. Many empty home owners would be happy to find occupants for their houses if only they had some help. It is important to find ways to help them get their houses back into use.
Britain's 350,000 long-term empty houses are a wasted asset to both the country and their owners. Given the huge demand and need for homes, Britain could do way better in this regard.
The Solution: Fill Up Britain's Empty Homes
The government has announced its intention to introduce a range of measures in England to bring empty homes back into use but George reckons what they are doing doesn't go anywhere near far enough. And while devolved national governments in Wales and Scotland are considering action on empty homes, they are currently lagging behind the work being done in England and certainly need to do more.
We're proposing two simple but effective changes that will give individuals and communities the power to take on Britain's empties and the resources to get them back into use:
1. A law change to give communities and individuals the power to turn abandoned properties in their local area into homes for people who need them.
2. Access to low-cost loan funds for people who need financial help to get empty properties back into use.
Help us turn some of these houses back into homes by joining our campaign and make sure you tell your friends all about it on Twitter or Facebook.
Please help us stop this senseless waste.
