The Northern Way: A Coalition for Change
The Northern Way is a partnership between six pioneering community housing organisations across the North of England. Together, we’re bringing homes — and hope — back into the very neighbourhoods most often left behind by national policy.
Rather than waiting for top-down solutions, we take a local, hands-on approach. We refurbish empty and neglected properties. We support vulnerable individuals. We create pathways to employment. We build homes that are genuinely affordable — and rooted in community values.
We are community-based, mission-driven organisations working together to create sustainable change, from the ground up.
Our Mission in Action
Over the past two decades, The Northern Way has brought more than 400 homes back into use — not just as places to live, but as foundations for better futures.
We are working to:
- Revitalising ‘Left Behind’ Neighbourhoods
- Fixing the broken private rented housing sector
- Refurbishing long-term empty property
- Delivering genuinely affordable, social housing
- Including the most vulnerable in everything we do
- Offering training/developing skills, and creating employment
- Fighting climate change through eco-retrofit of older houses
Explore the Projects Behind The Northern Way:
- Canopy, Leeds – Canopy have pioneered many methods of sustainable retrofit in relation to older urban properties. As well as tackling climate change this also gives the tenants of those properties a warm, comfortable place to live, that is free from mould and very cost effective to heat.
- East Marsh United, Grimsby – Working in one of the most deprived and challenging neighbourhoods in the UK, East Marsh United have begun to transform their community from the bottom up. Wrestling houses back from the private sector, planting trees and clearing rubbish, all done by and for the community that live on the East Marsh.
- Giroscope, Hull – Giroscope has pioneered working in a strategic way with the Local Authority to bring back hundreds of empty homes in their neighbourhood, following failed central government regeneration schemes. Giroscope brings back into use non-residential buildings as well, providing high quality space for community and business use.
- LATCH, Leeds – Leeds Action to Create Homes have been bringing back empty properties into use, in their part of Leeds, for over thirty years. These houses are used to house and support some of the most vulnerable people in their community. LATCH’s methods bring happiness and fulfilment to many people, in an extremely cost-effective way.
- Community Campus 87, Middlesbrough/Stockton – Community Campus have developed a project that brings empty property back into use, providing supported accommodation for homeless people in the North East. This is linked to training initiatives around the construction work. CC87 specialise in helping young people, providing housing for 16- 18-year olds, a much-neglected group.
- Doorstep, Grimsby – Doorstep have been refurbishing long term empty properties for over 35 years in the urban centres of Grimsby, providing quality affordable homes for young people and young families marginalised in the local housing market. Refurbishments provide opportunities for local people furthest from the labour market to learn new skills, build confidence; create new friendships and contribute to the regeneration of their neighbourhoods.
🎥 The Giroscope Journey: How It All Began
The Early Years of Giroscope
Discover how it all began. Co-founder Robert Amesbury reflects on Giroscope’s roots and the spirit of DIY culture that helped transform empty houses into homes.
The Northern Way 