Action on Empty Homes have appointed Rebecca Moore to the role of Director, following the departure of Will McMahon in November. Rebecca joins Action on Empty Homes from a background working across sectors in arts and culture, education, and social entrepreneurship.
On her appointment, Rebecca said, "It’s an exciting time to be taking over as Director. The issues surrounding empty homes touch on important elements in everyone’s lives right now. The low availability of the right kind of housing for one thing. The right kind of housing means homes that are affordable for the vast majority of people in this country. It also means housing that is energy efficient and comfortable to live in. This is during a time when the country is facing a cost-of-living crisis, high levels of homelessness and over 90,000 families living in unacceptably poor temporary accommodation.
"Action on Empty Homes releases the most authoritative data on empty homes and campaigns for underutilised housing to be brought into use for people with housing need.
“Additionally, as we’ve seen through our work with organisations bringing empty homes back into use, this country could go a long way to improving our net zero climate targets by retrofitting empty homes and making better use of our current housing stock – rather than promising to build endless amounts of the wrong kind of housing that is not energy efficient and not affordable. On top of that, many people are rightly concerned about their communities being eroded by Airbnbs and second homes – using up much needed housing stock and turning towns and pockets of cities into ghost towns for half of the year.
“There’s never been a more pressing time to address the issue of empty homes and underutilisation of properties and I’m excited to be here, leading this new phase”.
The Empty Homes Network warmly welcomes Rebecca to her new role, and looks forward to continuing its close working relationship during Rebecca’s tenure.
Delegates at The Empty Homes Network’s annual Conference will be able to hear more from Rebecca during her presenting session, in which she plans to update on the current projects undertaken by Action on Empty Homes, as well as her plans and vision for the organisation. More information on our Conference can be found here.
You can find out more about AEH's current work here.