Don't Waste Buildings

Don’t Waste Buildings!

As a dedicated conservationist who’s worked to save and repurpose historic buildings in Portsmouth and Hampshire for more years than I care to remember, the launch in April 2024 of the Don't Waste Buildings (DWB) campaign, a proactive  movement advocating for the reuse and retrofit of existing structures crystallised my long held belief that buildings can and should have a second – or even more new lives - after their first function disappears.  As DWB says, there are buildings all over the UK, and globally, which are untapped economic and social assets, not structures to be casually discarded. They could be utilised to deliver much-needed housing and development at greater speed, lower cost and with less of an impact on our environment. 

The Don’t Waste Buildings campaign was co-founded in May 2024 by Will Hurst (Managing Editor of The Architects' Journal), Leanne Tritton (Founder of ING Media), and Richard Nelson (Managing Director of Abyss Global).  It’s non-party political, with no funding, membership fees, sponsorship or commercial interests of any kind, run as a collective by individuals including leading property developers, financiers, architects, engineers, heritage experts and others. Over 150 volunteers and 2,200 LinkedIn members focus on its six key objectives: Engage, Recommend, Inform, Demonstrate, Collaborate, and Educate, aiming for policy clarity and financial incentives to make the reuse of existing buildings simpler and more profitable in order to stimulate growth in housing and development. Regional UK Chapters have been launched in the West Midlands (Birmingham), North West (Manchester) and Scotland, and the first international chapter in Australia (Melbourne). DWB arranges study tours of vulnerable and reused buildings in different parts of the country.

Its April 2026 report: The Reuse Dividend: Unlocking Economic Growth from Britain’s Existing Buildings called on the UK government to overhaul its tax system to incentivise the reuse of empty buildings, warning that Britain is missing out on billions of pounds of potential economic growth. The report analysed financial incentives used across eight developed economies — including France, Germany, the United States and Ireland — and found a proven blueprint that Britain has failed to adopt.

Central to the group's concerns is what it calls a "perverse incentive for demolition over renovation": retrofit projects currently attract 20% VAT, while new-build housing pays zero.

The report identifies this disparity as the single most impactful barrier to building reuse, and recommends four complementary measures to address it:

1.     Levelling the VAT playing field

2.     Tax credits or relief, such as introducing capital gains tax relief and stamp duty discounts for bringing vacant buildings back into use while meeting sustainability quality measures

3.     Creating targeted grants for struggling high streets and derelict buildings; and

4.     Subsidised finance: Establishing long-term low-interest loans with repayment grants for deep reuse projects through the National Wealth Fund, or a similar institution.

Report lead author and DWB co-founder Richard Nelson said: "A single empty building on a main street can define whether that street feels alive or forgotten. The opportunity is extraordinary. The only thing stopping us is the way we tax it."

The report also cites Historic England research suggesting that converting empty buildings over 100 years old could deliver up to 670,000 new homes.

RIBA Board chair Jack Pringle, who attended the launch, described the VAT disparity as "perverse" and called on the Treasury to act, while a government spokesperson pointed to existing energy-saving VAT reliefs and the £15 billion Warm Homes Plan as current measures in place.

DWB events in London and Portsmouth

In May last year I enjoyed the DWB event at 123 Golden Lane in London which is a model for Building Reuse, a refurbishment of a late Victorian building into a workspace which includes a cluster of architectural practices, preserving 80% of the original structure to minimize embodied carbon.

We heard about the international spread of the interactive Demolition Map (www.demolitionmap.uk). 50,000 buildings are demolished a year in the UK. The Map highlights Buildings Lost, Under Threat and Reused. The Portsmouth area of the UK map is well stocked – with the help of the Sustainable Conservation Trust which is based in the Dockyard Heritage Quarter. Catching sight of the large Tricorn site, empty since its demolition in 2004 makes me furious every time I pass it on my way out of the city.  Two architects prepared reuse plans for this multi-use, multi-layered structure, but the minister refused to list the building – and it was demolished. Just as infuriating is the pile of rubble – all that’s left of the local newspaper The News’s office, distribution centre and printworks. 

The latter was in use until 2023/4. An application to list it as an iconic 60s building failed. First Bus pulled it down using a loophole in Permitted Development – which urgently needs to be closed.   In summer 2025 DWB and Historic England held a seminar in Portsmouth’s Sustainable Conservation Trust’s office – the reused iron-framed Navy Pay Office in the Historic Quarter of HM Naval Base, followed by a tour of Portsea and Old Portsmouth exploring change and renewal locally.    

Celia Clark

Portsmouth Society

Hampshire Buildings Preservation Trust

Sustainable Conservation Trust.

THE REUSE DIVIDEND: HOW BRITAIN'S EMPTY BUILDINGS CAN REBUILD COMMUNITIES AND DRIVE ECONOMIC GROWTH

Cross-industry group launches landmark international study showing how other countries are unlocking billions from building reuse - while Britain's tax system holds it back

14 April 2026 – Across Britain, the story is a familiar one. A once-busy department store standing empty in the middle of town. A Victorian school that nobody has used for a decade. A row of flats above shops that have been waiting for new life for years. A former pub, a former bank, a former post office - all sitting idle, full of potential, in communities that have the appetite and the ambition to make the most of them.

However, the UK’s current tax framework is actively undermining the financial viability required to enable the reuse of buildings.

Today, in Westminster, a cross-industry group of developers, architects, financiers, engineers and heritage experts is launching a major new international study that asks one simple question: why is Britain one of the few developed economies in the world failing to unlock the extraordinary potential of these buildings?

The answer, the study finds, is both simple and fixable.

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/6704ed42d3630f5b2d2a6c61/t/69dd1d663891cd0d17ffe80d/1776098668753/DWB+The+Reuse+Dividend_V5.2+FINAL+compressed.pdf

DOWNLOAD THE REUSE DIVIDEND (https://static1.squarespace.com/static/6704ed42d3630f5b2d2a6c61/t/69dd1d663891cd0d17ffe80d/1776098668753/DWB+The+Reuse+Dividend_V5.2+FINAL+compressed.pdf)

THE REPORT The Reuse Dividend: Unlocking Economic Growth from Britain's Existing Buildings (download report PDF)

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/6704ed42d3630f5b2d2a6c61/t/69dd1d663891cd0d17ffe80d/1776098668753/DWB+The+Reuse+Dividend_V5.2+FINAL+compressed.pdf) ), published today by Don't Waste Buildings (http://www.dontwastebuildings.com/) , analyses the financial incentives deployed by eight developed economies which have driven building reuse at scale: France, Germany, the United States, Ireland, Canada, the Netherlands,  Belgium, and Italy. The study examines both the successes and the lessons learned, identifying a clear and proven blueprint for Britain to adopt.

The findings are striking. Country after country has recognised that its existing buildings are not problems to be disposed of through demolition but economic and social assets of enormous value. They have introduced intelligent financial incentives to bring them back into productive use, and reaped significant returns in jobs, growth, housing, and community regeneration.

Britain has not. And it is paying a heavy price.

WHAT THE UK SHOULD DO NOW

Based on its analysis of eight international models, Don't Waste Buildings is calling on the UK Government to introduce four complementary measures:-

1. Level the VAT playing field — Reduce or zero-rate VAT on repair, maintenance and renovation to bring existing buildings back into use, in line with France's proven model. The single most impactful change available, deliverable in a single Budget.

   
   

2. Introduce tax credits for reuse — Capital gains tax relief and Stamp Duty discounts for the purchase and reuse of vacant buildings, and tax credits for the use of reclaimed materials, following the US model.

   
   

3. Create targeted grants for vacant buildings — A direct grant programme modelled on Ireland's highly successful scheme, specifically targeted at Britain's declining high streets and town centres.

   
   

4. Establish subsidised finance for deep reuse — Long-term, low-interest loans through the National Wealth Fund, linked to achieving high performance energy standards, following Germany's KfW blueprint.

   
   

5. Lead author Richard Nelson, Co-Founder of Don't Waste Buildings, said: "The evidence from France, Germany, the US, Ireland and the other countries we’ve looked at is clear.

   
   

   “The building reuse programmes that have made the biggest difference are the ones creating long-term structural change while also focused on local communities to drive economic growth. “Places where a single empty building on a main street can define whether that street feels alive or forgotten. Britain has more of those buildings, and more of those streets, than almost any comparable country. The opportunity is extraordinary. The only thing stopping us is the way we tax it."

   
   

   THE OPPORTUNITY HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT — EVERYWHERE, NOT JUST LONDON. This is not primarily a London story. It is a story about every town, every high street and every community across the United Kingdom.

   
   

   There are currently more than one million empty buildings across Britain. According to Historic England (https://historicengland.org.uk/research/heritage-counts/heritage-insights/vacant-buildings-to-new-homes/), 670,000 new homes could be created simply by bringing vacant historic properties — buildings over 100 years old — back into use. These buildings are not concentrated in the capital. They are in Burnley and Bradford, in Stoke and Swansea, in Dundee and Doncaster, in coastal towns and market towns and post-industrial cities that have the potential to thrive again.

   
   

   Every one of those empty buildings represents a family that could have a home, a community that could have its heart back, a high street that could have a reason to exist. And every one of them is sitting idle — in part because the British tax system makes bringing them back to life significantly more expensive than simply knocking them down and starting again, a scenario with high environmental as well as economic costs due to the significant carbon price of building new.

   
   

   THE ABSURDITY AT THE HEART OF THE SYSTEM

   
   

   Under current British tax law, building a brand-new home is taxed at zero percent VAT. Reusing, repurposing or bringing back to life an existing building is taxed at the full 20 percent rate. This disparity dates back to the introduction of VAT in 1973 — a policy designed for a different era, with different priorities. Nobody designed it to penalise building reuse. But that is precisely what it does. Its consequences are felt every day in every community in the country. It makes the wasteful demolition of a perfectly sound building cheaper than saving it. It punishes the developer who wants to convert an empty office into flats. It penalises the community group trying to repurpose a vacant and deconsecrated church. It actively discourages exactly the behaviour that would benefit communities, cut carbon emissions and deliver the homes Britain desperately needs.

   
   

   Will Hurst, Co-Founder of Don't Waste Buildings and Managing Editor of The Architects' Journal, said: "Most people reuse things every day. We buy second-hand cars. We shop in charity shops, on eBay and on Vinted. Reuse is an inherently good thing and reusing buildings is the same common sense applied at a bigger scale — with even bigger rewards for communities and for the climate. The extraordinary thing is that Britain has quietly and perhaps unwittingly built a tax system that punishes people for doing it." WHAT OTHER COUNTRIES ARE DOING — AND EARNING

   
   

   The report's international evidence is compelling: France reduced the VAT rate on bringing existing buildings back into use from 20% to 10% — and to just 5.5% for energy efficiency improvements. The result is a building reuse market worth €45 billion every year, supporting hundreds of thousands of jobs, many of them in small and medium-sized businesses in towns and cities across the country. A critical side benefit: lower VAT rates make the formal, tax-paying route more attractive than cash-in-hand work, bringing billions of Euros worth of economic activity into the legitimate economy and increasing overall tax receipts.

   
   

   The United States introduced a 20% tax credit for the reuse and rehabilitation of historic buildings more than 40 years ago. It has since leveraged more than $109 billion in private investment. An independent study found the programme generates $1.20 to $1.25 in federal tax revenue for every single dollar of credit issued. It creates approximately 75,000 jobs annually — predominantly in smaller cities and towns where historic building stock is concentrated.

   
   

   Germany uses its state-owned KfW bank to offer low-interest loans and repayment grants for bringing buildings back up to high performance standards. Every €1 of public funding unlocks €6-7 of private investment, it is estimated. The programme stimulates €40-50 billion in private investment annually and supports an estimated 300,000-400,000 jobs per year.

   
   

   Ireland introduced direct grants of up to €70,000 for individuals bringing vacant and derelict buildings back into use as homes. The results are visible in towns and villages across the country — buildings that were eyesores and liabilities for years are now family homes, with residents spending money in local shops, paying local taxes and restoring local pride.

   
   

   Leanne Tritton, Co-Founder of Don't Waste Buildings said: "The French model is the one that gives the greatest optimism for Britain. France made one fundamental change – reducing the VAT rate on bringing existing buildings back into use – and the results have been extraordinary. A building reuse market worth €45 billion a year, hundreds of thousands of jobs, and buildings brought back to life in towns and cities right across the country. Not just in Paris. In places that face exactly the same challenges as the market towns and coastal communities of Britain. One change to the tax system delivered all of that. We could have the same story here and we could have it within this Parliament."

   
   

   HOUSING, JOBS AND THE HIGH STREET

   
   

   The report argues that a serious programme of building reuse would deliver across multiple dimensions simultaneously and that the benefits would be felt most powerfully outside of London and the South East.

   
   

   On housing: Even if only half of the 670,000 homes identified by Historic England within vacant historic properties prove viable, that represents a transformational contribution to the Government's target of 1.5 million new homes — delivered on well-connected brownfield land, without building on a single green field, without years of planning disputes, and in the communities that need housing most urgently.

   
   

   On high streets: Every empty building brought back to life changes the character of a street for the better. It brings footfall. It supports neighbouring businesses. It signals that a place has a future. The cumulative effect of hundreds of buildings being reused across a town centre is transformational as communities in France, Ireland and Germany demonstrate.

   
   

   Matt Bullivant, Financial & Tax Incentives Lead at Don't Waste Buildings, said: "The economic argument for fixing this is overwhelming. The international evidence shows consistently that well-designed incentives for building reuse pay for themselves — through increased tax receipts, job creation and a larger, more formalised economy.

   
   

   This is not government expenditure. It is strategic investment with a proven positive return. The question for the Treasury is not whether we can afford to do this. As eight other developed economies demonstrate, the question is whether we can afford not to.

   
   

   "THE CLIMATE CASE

   
   

   The environmental argument for this approach is equally compelling. The carbon emissions associated with demolishing an existing building and constructing a new one account for a significant and largely invisible share of Britain's total carbon footprint.

   
   

   Reusing a building instead typically saves 50-75% (https://www.aia.org/sites/default/files/2024-12/AIA_NTHP_Building_Reuse_42__0.pdf) (PDF) of this upfront carbon — carbon that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere immediately, at the very moment when every tonne counts most.

   
   

   At current rates, the UK will exhaust its remaining carbon budget as early as 2027 (https://www.sgr.org.uk/resources/uk-s-fair-carbon-budget-will-run-out-2027-here-s-evidence) .

   
   

   Building reuse is one of the fastest and most cost-effective tools available to avoid that outcome.

   DOWNLOAD THE REUSE DIVIDEND (https://static1.squarespace.com/static/6704ed42d3630f5b2d2a6c61/t/69dd1d663891cd0d17ffe80d/1776098668753/DWB+The+Reuse+Dividend_V5.2+FINAL+compressed.pdf)

   Don't Waste Buildings is the voluntary effort to make housing and development simpler and easier through the reuse of existing buildings.

   VISIT OUR WEBSITE (https://www.dontwastebuildings.com)

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