We are a national campaigning charity working to bring empty homes back into use as affordable housing for people who need it.
Joined November 2016
- Tweets 10,491
- Following 1,936
- Followers 3,726
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484 Photos and videos
Pinned Tweet
15 May 2024
Our major new report with @qurbanist of @sheffielduni and @sse_data recommends policy changes to boost rural and coastal housing access. Inc proposals on '2nd homes', Airbnb licensing, planning, social housing, local tax retention & responsible lending: shorturl.at/kHLR5
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Action on Empty Homes @emptyhomes retweeted
🎯
“The places building most housing have mysteriously produced the highest vacancy” says Chris Bailey of the charity Action on Empty Homes, “We’re building the wrong housing, it’s that simple. Towers of luxury apartments don’t house poor or homeless people.” theguardian.com/lifeandstyle…
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Action on Empty Homes @emptyhomes retweeted
Jun 10
Crucial reporting from Anoosh
If you want to understand the breakdown of Britain’s political status quo, look at housing
Jun 10
Inside the HMO crisis
The towns and villages of Wigan and Makerfield are the epicentre of Serco Britain, with multiple HMO hotspots. Wigan had some of the first asylum hotels, and now hundreds of HMOs. And the issue is coming up "all the time" for the Labour Party on the campaign trail, Anoosh Chakelian has been told
Don't miss her cover story for this week's @NewStatesman
newstatesman.com/cover-story…
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“The places building most housing have mysteriously produced the highest vacancy” says Chris Bailey of the charity Action on Empty Homes, “We’re building the wrong housing, it’s that simple. Towers of luxury apartments don’t house poor or homeless people.” theguardian.com/lifeandstyle…
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Action on Empty Homes @emptyhomes retweeted
Jun 10
Some of what is called residential housing isn’t even that, It’s basically a piece of London that’s been sold to an overseas entity that’s now sitting on it. That’s overseas-owned residential property, 45% of which is in London, & much of which is empty. theguardian.com/lifeandstyle…
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Action on Empty Homes @emptyhomes retweeted
"The places building the most housing have mysteriously managed to produce the highest levels of vacancy"
"We're building the wrong housing. It's that simple. Towers of luxury apartments don't house poor of homeless". theguardian.com/lifeandstyle…
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This is why it's critical that new innovations like the short lets (or Airbnb) register and a national register of private sector landlords use the Unique Property Reference Number system used for Land Registry Data - otherwise England and Ireland are in a similar position
"Because without changing how we manage housing data in Ireland, we will continue to run around in circles, getting nowhere closer to filling all the homes in the country and, crucially, ensuring everyone has a home"
@judesherry & my latest in The Journal
#DerelictIreland
ALT "Because without changing how we manage housing data in Ireland, we will continue to run around in circles, getting nowhere closer to filling all the homes in the country and, crucially, ensuring everyone has a home" @judesherry & my latest in The Journal #DerelictIreland
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Action on Empty Homes @emptyhomes retweeted
Labour inherited a housing crisis - we must not inherit the culture of sleaze that helped create it.
Developer lobbyists donate to shape politics.
They want expensive, low quality homes and bigger profits.
Sign my petition to ban developer donations.
chrishinchliff.co.uk/develop…
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Action on Empty Homes @emptyhomes retweeted
Jun 8
Did chanting “build baby build” while wearing red baseball caps cause Labour to lose control of Enfield Council? Local people in Crews Hill - even Labour voters - tell me they found it concerning
inews.co.uk/news/housing/pan…
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Action on Empty Homes @emptyhomes retweeted
Jun 3
The anniversary of the Grenfell tragedy is coming up. So many people I speak to don't realise there are still SO MANY unsafe buildings. It is beyond belief that successive governments have failed to get a grip on a national scandal #endourcladdingscandal
bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c626…
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Action on Empty Homes @emptyhomes retweeted
London's empy homes and the failed housing policies which created them..
Over half the homeless families in Temporary Accommodation in England are Londoners, at a time when the capital is building ever greater stocks of empty homes ..up 138% in a decade!
swlondoner.co.uk/news/260520…
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Action on Empty Homes @emptyhomes retweeted
'People have a different priority altogether [from just Build Baby Build]. They want housing to be more affordable to buy or rent, reflected in the popularity of rent controls and ideas to boost the availability of social housing'
It is time we stopped building #TheWrongHousing
May 28
Fascinating about the gap between perception and reality when it comes to Labour's housing policies from @BenIpsosUK
benm77.medium.com/a-renter-r…
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Action on Empty Homes @emptyhomes retweeted
Wanting growth. Go green! CBI report shows Britain’s green economy growing by ten per cent a year, as are green jobs, now totalling over a million, paying better and more productive than others. Scrapping net zero would be economic madness.
cbi.org.uk/media/owxdidg1/cb…
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Action on Empty Homes @emptyhomes retweeted
'Everything we’re doing is too small, too slow, and too late.. we’ve just been accumulating vacant properties
There's a sense we are literally building empty homes and certainly not building the homes that Londoners need’
London empties up 138% in a decade
swlondoner.co.uk/news/260520…
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Action on Empty Homes @emptyhomes retweeted
Long-term empty homes in London rose 23% last year - up 138% in a decade. Here's why: a business model based on serving overseas investors #BuyToLeave or #BuyToAirBnB not meeting the need for affordable homes for Londoners - a decade of building #TheWrongHousing - over 100k empty
May 29
The Estate Agent JLL reported that the number of new homes that were completed but unsold topped 3,600 at the end of March 2026 while an additional 18,737 homes remained under construction but unsold in the Capital. International buyers deterred by higher taxes and lower yields aren’t buying off plan and investors have largely pivoted northwards to garner better returns. Meanwhile domestic buyers who've never been good at buying off plan, faced with higher rates and excessive service charges, which they have no control over, that only go one way, remain wary. As a result, prices have fallen but any appetite to buy remains light along with any motivation to build more.
@EdMagnus5 thismon.ee/a/15855977
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Action on Empty Homes @emptyhomes retweeted
'303,185 long-term vacant dwellings in England in 2025, an increase of 14.5% from 2024.. “The rising number is concerning, given the scale of the housing challenge.. But is also indicative of the opportunity that exists within existing housing stock"
modernlender.co.uk/long-term…
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Action on Empty Homes @emptyhomes retweeted
May 28
The Labour Party understands trickle-down economics doesn’t work.
So why back trickle-down housing?
Let developers build expensive homes and hope crumbs filter down. It's not worked in 40 years!
We need a need-led approach: build social rent & affordable homes at scale.
I'm chairing the APPG for Council & Social Housing with @Shelter.
1.3M on waiting lists. 175K kids in temporary accommodation. Record homelessness.
This didn't happen by accident; governments stopped building council homes.
It's time to change that.
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Action on Empty Homes @emptyhomes retweeted
May 27
170,000 children are in temporary accommodation - deprived of a stable home.
The public must know housing policy is made in the public interest.
Developers have donated millions to political parties.
They want more profit - not affordable homes.
Ban developer donations.
May 22
Developers pour ÂŁÂŁÂŁ into politics to keep the system working for their profits.
And while their money tries to silence local democracy, the housing crisis goes unsolved.
Sign my petition to kick developer cash out of politics. 👇
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