The Empty Homes Agency is an Head Office: Northern Office:

independent campaigning charity, which The Empty Homes Agency The Empty Homes Agency
exists to highlight the waste of empty 195-197 Victoria Street PO Box 3609
property in England and works with others London Barnsley
to devise and promote sustainable SW1E 5NE S75 1WW
solutions to bring empty property back Phone: 020 7828 6288 Phone/Fax: 01226 390 093
into use. Fax: 020 7828 7006 Mobile: 07719 798 033
Email: info@emptyhomes.com
Web: www.emptyhomes.com

For immediate release

All ‘Barker’ And No Bite!

The Empty Homes Agency has called for a local and regional rethink on using
existing stock to address the housing need on a national level.

“We now have a policy and legislative framework that actively encourages the
best use of existing stock, what we now need to see across the country, being
driven by Regional Housing Boards is each local authority devising their own
plan of how empty homes can help meet the housing need,” said Jonathan
Ellis, Chief Executive of the Empty Homes Agency, at the CIEH Regional
Conference on 5th April 2006 in Newcastle.

“One of our most recent successes has been an explicit commitment by

Government, for the first time, that bringing long-term empty property back
into use can make a contribution to meeting housing supply.1

“For this reason we think that Regional Housing Boards should be taking a
much more pro-active role in the regional housing strategy to encourage local
authorities to be looking far more creatively at existing stock to maximise its
usage.

“On a local level we believe that local authorities should be taking a three step
approach to this issue:

 Why are there empty homes?

 What would it take to get them back into use?
 Take Action! – Match the individual property to one of the number of
options available2

“One of the most challenging parts of this approach to housing strategy is at a

local level to begin to quantify the number of long-term empty homes that can
be brought back into use to meet new housing supply. We think that this will
become one of the fundamental questions in housing strategy work at a local
and sub-regional level.

“We’re not saying that empty homes represent the whole answer to the need
for new houses. This is clearly not the case, and we at the Empty Homes
Agency would advise you to be very wary of anyone saying that it is the whole
answer. Nonetheless it does represent a contribution, and this contribution will
differ in different parts of the country. The critical issue is that at a local
authority strategic planning level, there is an accurate and robust answer to
how many properties can be brought back into use.
“What the Empty Homes Agency wants to see now, at a local level, is a
strategic and deliberate analysis of the potential for empty homes meeting
local housing need and then the inclusion of an action plan in the strategic
housing plan to bring those properties back into use. So far the rhetoric has
been good and has resulted in sound policy change, we now need to see
action on the ground,” said Mr Ellis.

ENDS
Notes for Editors:
1
The Government’s Response to Kate Barker’s Review of Housing Supply , paragraphs 2.21 – 2.23

2
Options available would include: Voluntary options such as grants, loans or a private leasing agreement; Where voluntary
options are not viable other options include: Enforcement action such as Compulsory purchase, Enforced sale or Empty
Dwelling management orders (Effective from April 2006);