Inside Housing – News – Former US president’s charity outlines plans to tackle UK housing crisis
Ms Blackmore urged housing associations and councils to consider converting their empty offices to homes.
“If a housing association or other any other provider has properties that would be suitable for this type of kind of retrofit, regeneration usage, then, we’d call on all of them to consider the empty places to home model,” she said.
“On its own, empty spaces to home conversions are not going to solve the housing crisis,” said Christopher Kerr, head of ESG at law firm Davitt Jones Bould, which is also supporting the charity.
“But as a tool in the toolkit, I think it’s really powerful and effective.
“From a strategic perspective for housing associations, when there are so many difficulties of building new homes… considering this option would really increase supply at a much quicker rate,” he added.
Habitat for Humanity ensures its conversions meet local HMO guidance. “You need to be willing to go deep into the retrofit when necessary to so it’s not just a skin-deep solution,” Mr Clare said.
Through corporate and volunteer upcycling days, it has been able to furnish some of its flats. “It really looks lovely when you walk in, everything’s there and ready for them, and they can literally just move in,” Mr Clare added.
A push for greater regulation around empty space to home conversions would have seen the government adopt the Town and Country Planning Association’s healthy homes standards in the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill, but this measure was dropped before it became law in 2023.
While the toolkit “does a great job of pushing quality,” Mr Kerr said, “some additional regulation would be really useful”.
“That may actually lead to more empty spaces to homes conversions, because people feel much more comfortable making them.”
Jimmy Carter has been involved with Habitat for Humanity in the US since 1984. The 99-year-old was president of the US from 1977 to 1981 and is the longest living US president in history.
