omebuilding charity Habitat for Humanity Great Britain has launched a brand new blueprint for changing disused office and retail house into social housing, after finishing two such conversions within the borough of Barking and Daghenham.

The charity, the UK arm of the group related to former US president Jimmy Carter, in the present day launched an app for people to establish empty workplace and retail areas that might be become homes. It additionally launched a brand new tool kit, permitting different teams to copy its conversions.

Tum Kazunga, CEO of Habitat for Humanity Great Britain mentioned: “Our aim is to increase the capacity of social housing across the UK and Europe by working with a collaborative network of local housing authorities, charities and private sector partners.

“Inflation, the cost-of-living crisis and forced displacement affect the most vulnerable, and providing social housing by repurposing unused buildings is one of the quickest ways to provide housing support, which is our absolute focus in Europe.

“The Empty Spaces to Homes toolkit is a stepping-stone to bring new homes to communities.”

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Proposals to transform empty workplaces into housing have picked up steam as companies hire out much less workplace house in a post-pandemic shift in working patterns. Yet many of those efforts have been hindered by sophisticated planning purple tape in addition to sensible points surrounding plumbing and pure mild.

The hope is that the plan would assist organisations to navigate the bureaucratic and sensible challenges round retrofitting buildings into new social housing.

Kazunga additionally famous that the scheme targeted on retail as effectively, the place declining footfall has led to empty areas that might be stuffed by housing.

“It’s something that has been given impetus by the pandemic, but also by issues affecting the high street generally,” he mentioned. “We’re seeing a decline of the high street and there are a lot of vacant spaces opening up.”

Kazunga famous that weak teams, such because the disabled and people escaping home violence, really feel the worst penalties of the nation’s housing disaster: one thing he hopes the scheme can repair.

“The common denominator, which is a sad reflection of where we are as a society, is that there just isn’t enough housing to support these vulnerable people,” he mentioned.