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A national Empty Homes Strategy

A national Empty Homes Strategy

A national Empty Homes Strategy

The most cost-effective and environmentally sustainable ways to increase the affordable housing supply

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Big Issue is calling on government to publish a national Empty Homes Strategy to help tackle the housing crisis.

The UK is facing a crisis in affordable housing. Right now, 135,580 households are living in unsuitable temporary accommodation in England. 1.34 million households are on social housing waiting lists. In the face of this demand, government must use every lever available to deliver more affordable homes.

The cheapest, quickest and most environmentally friendly way to increase the social housing stock is to bring empty homes back into use. We estimate that for the investment cost of every 1 new build, 2.6 empty homes can be brought back into use.

We are calling on the government to show leadership and provide the resources local authorities need to take advantage of empty homes via a National Empty Homes Strategy.

We want to see:

A central £2 billion funding allocation for local authorities to access.
Stamp duty reduction for empty homes purchases.
Fully-funded local authority duty to act on empty homes.
And more….

A pair of semi-detached homes, one side is empty and boarded up

John Bird speaking in the House of Lords

The facts

There are more than 309,000 long-term empty homes in England.
135,580 households are living in unsuitable temporary accommodation in England.
1.34 million households are on local authority social housing waiting lists.

The evidence for change

Patchwork government support for bringing empty homes back into use prevents local authorities from developing empty properties in their area at any significant scale, while creating structural bias toward new builds.

Lack of available funding: Home England’s Empty Homes programme offers grants of £10,000 per property for Registered Providers, in comparison to an average of £139,000 per new build. This far smaller proportion of the total cost per home still requires the same modern building standards be met, which are exceptionally expensive to achieve when retrofitting existing buildings.

Grant funding under the government’s landmark Social and Affordable Homes Programme (SAHP) is heavily targeted toward new builds. As councils and registered providers must compete with well-resourced housing associations and private developers for the same pot of SAHP funding, it is harder to justify bids for more complex, piecemeal empty home redevelopments.

Higher tax costs: Empty home purchases face a 5% Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) surcharge for landlords and social-impact organisations without charitable status, including CICs and social impact property funds. By comparison, building new has no SDLT. Refurbishment works by these providers are subject to 20% VAT, whereas qualifying new-build construction benefits from a 0% VAT rate.

Leadership gap: Wales and Scotland benefit from national co-ordination, peer support amongst empty homes officers and better data collection. Without these resources, local authorities in England have less capacity and support for empty homes projects.

A central funding allocation

We are urging the government to allocate £2 billion of new or existing funds to support 40,000 empty homes to be used as low-cost rental homes. This represents a fraction of the £39 billion already allocated to the Social and Affordable Homes Programme, but has the ability to produce 2.6 times as many homes per pound of government investment. This 40% saving per home would make this fund a highly cost effective course of action.

We propose the funding should be allocated to Strategic Authorities, or local authorities where they do not exist. These authorities should have autonomy and decision-making powers over how the funding is spent. Local decision makers are best placed to understand local need, and to oversee projects that would vary substantially in every postcode – from simple redecoration projects, to remedial structural interventions; to homes being used for temporary accommodation or permanent housing.

Bringing empty homes back into use

Big Issue Invest provided a £251,000 loan to Handcrafted in 2024 to acquire three derelict properties in the North East. The homes now provide accommodation for four child asylum seekers, with rental income supporting loan repayments.

Big issue Invest loaned £2.5 million to Homes for Good in 2026 to support the acquisition and refurbishment of 210 neglected properties across Glasgow and Ayrshire to be use as high quality homes, with 70% of those let at Local Housing Allowance rents.