Replacing empty spaces with productive, green places.
Exploring the environmental and social impact of empty building conversion.
Our Research Empty Spaces to Homes
LSE Housing and Communities Research
Habitat for Humanity and M&G plc commissioned the London School of Economics (LSE) to investigate the environmental effects of converting empty buildings into housing, and the transformational potential of this work in places with many empty buildings. The resulting report reveals a significant opportunity to harness the embodied carbon in existing buildings – particularly commercial properties – to create up to half a million new homes, while increasing the skills base in the labour market and supporting wider economic activity. The report’s recommendations fall under four clear themes.
The Net Zero Carbon and Sustainability Guidance Note should be reviewed to include specific references, and at least one case study, of commercial property conversion into affordable housing.
The UK Green Building Council’s Net Zero Building standards currently in development should include guidance on commercial property conversion into affordable housing, following up the ‘Building the Case for Net Zero: Retrofitting Office Buildings’ document with specific guidance on using suitable larger office spaces for good-quality affordable housing.
MHCLG and DESNZ should formally recognise the potential of repurposing unused commercial properties to deliver quality homes and support net zero goals, undertake an urgent review of available commercial stock, and develop a concise ‘decision support toolkit’ to help funders and developers advance these schemes.
Negative health outcomes (prevalent in conversions done under the permitted development framework) should be addressed in planning and design standards through improved and enforced space standards, windows, amenities, ventilation and thermal comfort.
Removing VAT on renewal and conversion projects should be considered and implemented, providing a much-needed boost to national economic growth.
Additional guidance should be issued to local government to clarify how Warm Homes Plan funding can be applied to the conversion of empty spaces to homes across all rented tenures.
Evidence on the economic and social cost-benefit implications of conversions should be systematically explored, with national and local guidance issued to guide options appraisals – recognising that not all commercial properties are good candidates for conversion due to design, location or cost.
Updated EPC metrics should include consideration of commercial conversions, where additional or derogated situations may need to be included.
The Office for Clean Energy Jobs should work with the housebuilding and construction sectors to provide clear guidance and targets around office-to-homes conversion skills.
Initiatives to improve and expand skills training taken by local authorities should be supported and expanded, including the development of national skills standards and assessment tools.
Online advice on energy efficiency and clean heat – and signposting to trusted local installers – should be extended to cover commercial conversion projects.
National: A Government task-and-finish group – including MHCLG, industry and building-standards stakeholders, answering to the Housing Minister – should be established to deliver the legislative and operational changes needed to enable local authorities to support conversions in partnership with their stakeholders and residents.
Local: Local authorities should maintain and publish detailed records of unused commercial units, use the proposed guide to assess their suitability for conversion into quality homes, and review these assessments annually to identify opportunities for engagement with commercial and third-sector developers.
Best-practice learning: Government should consider Paris’s all-city approach of making renewal the default option, and Brussels’s long experience of converting unused offices to homes, to compile the main practical learning points.
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