By Gary Hartin, Programme Manager
I recently visited Rushcliffe Borough Council to speak to its Empty Homes Officer, Claudia Bowring, on what it really takes to bring an empty property back into use. Claudia’s role sits within the Environmental Health Team, but our conversation quickly showed me that empty homes work is much more than responding to overgrown gardens, vermin, complaints or buildings falling into disrepair. Action on Empty Homes (opens in new window) estimates that more than one million homes in England are either empty or not in permanent residential use, equivalent to around 1 in every 25 homes.
For the Nationwide Foundation, bringing empty homes back into use is an important part of increasing access to decent, affordable homes alongside the need for new housing supply.
At its best, empty homes work is about unlocking existing housing assets. At a time when the government has committed to delivering 1.5 million new homes (opens in new window) over five years, we should be asking a simple question: how many homes already exist, but are not being used? Bringing empty homes back into use will not solve the housing crisis on its own, but it can play a practical role in increasing housing supply, meeting housing need and improving neighbourhoods.
Empty homes are rarely simple
It is easy to assume that an empty home is empty because an owner does not care. Claudia’s experience tells a very different story. During our discussion, she described a role that involves detective work, data analysis, owner tracing, emotional intelligence, negotiation, partnership working and, where necessary, enforcement.
The reasons homes become and remain empty are varied. Some are stuck in probate after an owner has died. Some are tied up in family grief or emotional attachment. Some owners have moved into care. Some homes are affected by hoarding, ill health, legal disputes, planning delays, structural problems, financial barriers or complicated ownership.
Rushcliffe’s Empty Homes Strategy (opens in new window) recognises that empty homes are often part of a wider housing challenge, rather than simply individual property issues. First introduced in 2019, the strategy provides a structured approach to identifying and tackling long-term empty homes through data, owner engagement and proportionate enforcement. It also acknowledges the many reasons homes can remain empty, including poor property condition, financial constraints, probate, inheritance, care moves, abandonment and land banking.
That matters because the solution is rarely one-size-fits-all. A family dealing with bereavement needs a different conversation from an investor who has underestimated refurbishment costs. A hoarding case needs more than a clearance contractor. A housing association void, a planning delay and an untraceable owner all require different routes through the system.
What does an Empty Homes Officer actually do?
Empty homes work is not a statutory function, and many councils must balance it against competing priorities. That means some authorities have dedicated capacity, while others take a more reactive approach. Rushcliffe’s experience shows the value of having dedicated expertise focused on bringing homes back into use.
The strongest message I took from Claudia is that an Empty Homes Officer is not simply an enforcement officer. The role is part investigator, part housing professional, part mediator, part data analyst and part project manager.
At the heart of Rushcliffe’s work is a four-step approach:
- Investigate: First, the officer has to identify empty properties. This can come from public reports, council tax data, planning intelligence, colleagues, councillors or visible signs such as unused bins, overgrown gardens and a lack of activity. Then comes investigation: who owns the property, how long has it been empty, what is its council tax status, is probate involved, are there complaints, and who can actually make a decision?
- Engage: The next stage is engagement. Claudia described contacting owners, sending letters, asking about their plans, and trying to understand what support they need. That might mean helping someone think through whether to sell, rent, refurbish, auction or seek specialist advice.
- Encourage: Rushcliffe’s public empty homes page reflects this support-led approach, offering advice, referrals to other council departments, links with estate and letting agents, appraisals and guidance on VAT reductions for refurbishment.
- Enforce: Only when engagement fails, or when a property is causing serious harm, does enforcement become the route forward. Even then, it is not arbitrary. Rushcliffe’s Strategy is clear that enforcement is used as a last resort, after support and negotiation have been tried, and as part of a structured case file that can stand up to scrutiny.
From crisis management to asset management
Many councils first encounter empty properties because something has gone wrong. A neighbour reports rats. A garden becomes overgrown. Damp affects the adjoining home. Young people break in. A dangerous tile falls. These are real problems and councils must respond to them.
But the bigger opportunity is to move beyond crisis management. Empty homes work should not only be about managing decline once a property has become a nuisance. It should be about identifying risk earlier, understanding ownership and vacancy patterns, and helping owners act before a home deteriorates.
That is why data matters. Rushcliffe developed a comprehensive empty homes database to record, monitor, categorise and prioritise cases, with categories including priority properties, probate cases, housing association or company-owned homes, and privately owned homes. Its Strategy also uses a scoring and rating system so that officer time is focused where the need, risk or community impact is greatest.
This is the shift local authorities need to make: from a static list of empty properties to a proactive housing asset management approach. Councils already hold valuable information through council tax, planning, environmental health, housing, legal services and community reporting. The question is whether they have the strategy, systems and dedicated capacity to use it well.
Why every local authority needs an Empty Homes Strategy
Rushcliffe’s experience shows what is possible when a council has a clear strategy and dedicated officer capacity. After implementing its first Empty Homes Strategy in 2019, Rushcliffe employed its first dedicated Empty Homes Officer, developed procedures, researched empty homes, traced owners, built contractor relationships and created an empty homes webpage and reporting tool.
The results are tangible. Since adopting its strategy in 2019, Rushcliffe reports that 83 long-term and problematic empty homes have been brought back into use through active local authority intervention or enforcement, alongside wider activity through advice, campaigns, letters, phone calls and signposting. It also served 61 formal enforcement notices during the previous strategy period to address condition, appearance, safety and vermin issues linked to empty homes.
For local authorities, the lesson is clear: an Empty Homes Strategy should not sit on the edge of housing policy. It should be a corporate priority connected to housing supply, neighbourhood renewal, homelessness prevention, council tax, planning, environmental health, legal services and regeneration.
The Local Government Association (opens in new window) and Empty Homes Network (opens in new window) have also argued that bringing empty homes back into use can form part of local strategies to meet housing need, while recommending dedicated resource, better data, earlier owner engagement and stronger tools for officers. Rushcliffe’s Strategy echoes that: local authorities should understand local empty homes, support owners, prioritise cases, and use enforcement proportionately where support is not enough.
A call to local authorities
My takeaway from meeting Claudia is simple: empty homes are not just empty properties. They are stories, assets, risks and opportunities. Behind every long-term empty home there is usually a reason. Behind every successful return to use there is usually patient, skilled casework.
If every local authority had an Empty Homes Strategy and a dedicated Empty Homes Officer, more councils could move from reacting to complaints towards proactively unlocking homes. That would mean better use of existing housing, stronger neighbourhoods, more options for people in housing need and a more rounded contribution to national housing ambitions. For the Nationwide Foundation, this is exactly the kind of local action that deserves more attention: focused, practical work that helps increase access to decent, affordable homes.
The opportunity is already built. The challenge now is to bring it back into use.
