Empty Homes Agency

The charity has mounted several campaigns aimed at changing government policy to help more empty homes to be brought into use.

Its successes include successfully lobbying the government to introduce empty dwelling management orders (EDMOs) – legislation to enable local authorities to take over the management control of dwellings that have been empty for six months or more in a forced lease scheme.

Empty Homes are part of the Cut the VAT Coalition which believes that reducing VAT from 17.5% to 5% for all maintenance and home improvement work would help the Government achieve its target of cutting carbon emissions by 60% by 2050, as well as encourage the refurbishment and use of empty properties.

The Government announced that it would allocate £100 million[2] for schemes bringing empty homes into use as part of the comprehensive spending review.

Following this funding, academic research has been published on 'empty homes' projects; for example, in 2016 an article in Public Money and Management which examined the dynamics of a successful collaborative 'empty homes' partnership comprising housing associations, social enterprises and local government.