The emergency accommodation crisis isn’t short of coverage - thanks to advocacy by brilliant charities and councils, and a media that grasps its seriousness. But it is short of solutions, and particularly ones that go beyond emergency fixes to delivery models that offer speed, scalability and quality control. 

Common’s south London development, Zodiac, a disused 1960s office block converted into 73 homes, was sold to Croydon Council earlier in 2025 for use as emergency accommodation. It was fully-occupied in two weeks, and shows how repurposing empty or underused office buildings can help local authorities ease emergency housing pressures. With commercial spaces up and down the country falling into disuse – Savills UK Q1 2025 data shows the UK office vacancy rate is 7.5% (over 100 million sq ft of empty space) – it seems a startlingly obvious alternative to the costly and low-quality status quo. So why does Zodiac stand almost alone as an example of high-quality reuse for this purpose – why is the development market not joining the dots to respond to this critical need?

If this model is to scale, we need to help planning be a more nuanced tool, and we need to crack the financial model. 

Planning policy for residential development is still predominantly geared towards new-build.Working with an existing structure can make it challenging to accommodate rigid planning requirements that are conceived for new-build projects with few constraints. Conversions require more decisions and a series of judgement calls: can we allow some north-facing homes, when buildings can’t be reoriented? Can we accept more than eight homes per floor per core? What should we do with the rest of the space if not?

In a new-build scenario, the design proposals will be the result of significant back and forth between applicant and planning authority, working through various options. Working with an existing building takes many of those options off the table from the start. The existence of Permitted Development Rights (PDR) for the change of use from office to residential often makes it possible to retain the existing building, and its carbon savings, by recognising some of the more subjective planning asks needed to flex.

PDR needs refining, rather than banning: Local Authorities and developers relying on PDR to deliver TA need standards to guide them, a way to know what is good, and what is not acceptable. We’ve worked with Commonweal, a charity finding housing-based solutions to wider social problems, and architects Morris + Company to create the foundations for family-specific TA design guidance. Now with the completion of our Zodiac scheme this work can befurther tested to give those wanting to deliver purpose-built emergency accommodation the knowledge to do so well – giving local planning authorities a robust way to judge proposals against appropriate criteria. JustLife’s ‘A Better Vision For Temporary Accommodation’ report, published in June also makes specific recommendations on this front. 

In our experience, conventional equity investors and lenders are at the start of their journey to embracing re-use projects, with perception concerns over suitability of existing buildings for reuse, ongoing warranty provision, funding, income certainty, and ongoing management complexity. Scaling the delivery of this model all comes down to viability – a lot of these opportunities are very marginal in terms of making the financials work.

But with a growing pool of impact-driven capital seeking meaningful investments, there’s huge potential to make retrofit projects the natural home of this capital. In the case of Zodiac, enlightened seed equity, along with a Homes England development loan provided the financial stack. Croydon Council were then able to recycle right to buy receipts, bring in some grant funding, and borrow the remaining capital to cover the purchase costs. Funders with longer-term return horizons – such as the big pension funds – are primed to enter this space, providing an aligned long term funding solution. The solid covenant of a long-term council lease, and the massive social and environmental value an office-to-TA project delivers should make this type of project extremely attractive. 

There’s a strong case for further government support to encourage additional and new types of private capital into this space, whether through equity investment, government backed loan guarantees, or grant funding – or a combination. We’re working on this as part of the recently launched Temporary Accommodation Network.

Zodiac is proof of concept: with the right conditions, private developers can work alongside councils and their housing teams to deliver socially valuable housing from otherwise redundant assets. As we scale our business to work with portfolios of empty buildings, helping both their owners and the councils where they’re based, we’re seeing growing interest in finding solutions to this multifaceted issue. People really care. 

The changes to scale this solution are actually quite simple: examples of best practice design that signpost what good looks like in retrofit, carbon regulation that rewards retaining structures, and clearer pathways for impact-finance to support such projects. Most importantly, we all need to take responsibility for culture-change around building reuse. Zodiac shouldn’t be an exception, but a blueprint for housing solutions that serve society’s most vulnerable.