News

More than 500 property industry professionals have now taken enough steps to walk three times around the world during October.

Throughout October, we've seen over 500 property professionals across the UK stomping away, vying to log the highest step count they can manage, and win one of the many trophies up for grabs. Competition has been fierce, and you've already walked around the earth more than twice - taking over 100,000,000 steps between you!

Our first Ambassador of the Month was Anna Stewart from BNP Paribas Real Estate, and we're pleased to announce our second Ambassadors of the Month are Alexander Barnes and Joseph Round, from Gerald Eve LLP, one of our Foundation Partners.

One of the many amazing charity partners we work with is Giroscope in Hull. As it is Empty Homes Week this week, we thought it would be a great opportunity to highlight the work Giroscope do in buying and renovating empty homes. Not only do they make the properties into usable accommodation, they also encourage volunteers and prospective tenants to help in the renovation project, giving them a greater sense of ownership of the property.

It is unacceptable that 86,000 young people will experience homelessness this year. Tragically, that truth is matched by another bizarre, shocking statistic. According to the government, there are 205,000 long-term empty homes ('long-term' means over six months) in England alone. This week is national Empty Homes Week.

It is a startling fact that young people in the UK are three times more likely to experience homelessness than the rest of the population, and are disproportionally impacted by job insecurity and poverty. A recent study found that one in 13 people aged between 16 and 25 in the UK have experienced some form of homelessness within the last five years.

Since joining Action on Empty Homes as Director in August, I have had my sights firmly fixed on delivering Empty Homes Week. We organise Empty Homes Week to give local authorities the chance to celebrate successes and reflect on what more needs to be done to bring empty properties back into use. It also gives a focus for national and local media to report on the issue, and this in turn pushes empty homes up the policymaking agenda.

Today is the first day of Steptober: the first ever property industry-wide step challenge! As the newest member of LandAid's Events and Fundraising team, it's been inspiring to work on Steptober for my first event - I'm already bowled over by the enthusiasm and zeal of our supporters. We've already got more than 130 teams and more than 500 people signed up - which is a crazy number! That's a whole lot of steps about to be logged...

Our first Ambassador of the Month is Anna Stewart, of BNP Paribas Real Estate.