The Vacant Shops Academy

“I found Iain extremely knowledgeable and very easy to work with. The systems and learnings put in place by The Vacant Shops Academy will help Ripon for many years to come.

Our vacancy rate has dropped from 12% to 8% during the time we have worked with the Academy, and we now have much better working relationships with stakeholders such as the local authority, landlords and agents.”

– Lilla Bathurst, Manager, Ripon BID

“The Vacant Shops Academy has helped us move from simply monitoring shop vacancies [in Fleetwood] to asking the right questions about why they happen and how we can work with others to address them.

“The ideas and practical suggestions for new uses for empty shops have been especially valuable. The templates and case studies have been extremely helpful in turning learning into action.… We’re now rolling [Iain’s] approach out across our other towns.”

– Mark Fenton, Economic Development Manager, Wyre Council

“Aberdeen Inspired found huge value in the work carried out as part of our collaboration with The Vacant Shops Academy, which placed a microscopic lens on the acute issues facing Aberdeen’s main street, Union Street.

Stemming from this… the establishment of ‘Our Union Street’ as the vehicle to progress interventions, and helped with the development of the Union Street Empty Shops Plan with £500,000 allocated to attract new businesses to occupy empty units and sow the seeds to reduce vacancy rates.”

– Aberdeen Inspired

“We found Iain’s practical understanding and deep placemaking experience to be a huge help in supplementing our efforts. Offering a collegiate approach and generosity of knowledge, his ‘audit, engage, encourage, promote’ methodology has helped us unlock stalled units, reignite and strengthen our city centre partnerships, especially with commercial agents, and ultimately, is helping us reduce the number of vacant units on our high street.

Iain is a trusted partner, who is honest, pragmatic and encourages us to trust the process. We hope other places can leverage his approach with the same success we have.”

– Nicholas Brown (Head of Economic Inclusion and Business Engagement) & Ben Cluett (Economic Development Officer), Southend City Council

“The work that [Iain] has produced has proved invaluable and will be used to help the BID and the city council deliver their high street regeneration plans including the retail strategy. Iain brought so much knowledge, advice and support to the project, and has been a real pleasure to work with.

The Vacant Shops Academy will be a part of the work we do moving forwards as the relationship we have built will benefit us all into the future.”

– Sunderland BID

“Iain has been fantastic to work with. His knowledge of high streets and placemaking has been so helpful to us at South Gloucestershire Council, and his recommendations were measured after spending time getting to know all our high streets individually. 

We have taken Iain’s advice and are about to launch a vacant commercial property grant, as well as putting into practice many of his other recommendations. The support he has provided us after his commission had finished has also been second to none, including attending an event for us and linking us up with other authorities and BIDs.”

– South Gloucestershire Council

“Working with Iain in 2022 on the first vacant shops project for Union Street played a significant part in shaping the Empty Shops Action Plan and ultimately leading to the now highly successful Empty Shops Grant scheme which is playing a big part in driving down Union Street vacancy rates.”

– Ross Grant, Aberdeen Inspired

“The Vacant Shops Academy has played a key role in supporting Cheshire East Council in the creation and operation of a new grant scheme to support repurposing of town centre properties in Crewe. From initial advice and support in developing the business case, through to their well-honed approach in ‘audit, engage, encourage, promote’, their insights and encouragement have been crucial.

It’s not always been straightforward, given the challenges of engaging with property owners and agents, but together we’ve navigated a way through that is helping to reinvigorate and diversify Crewe town centre with a mix of vibrant and sustainable businesses.”

– Cheshire East Council

“We are extremely pleased with progress made so far and looking forward to what the future brings for Tredegar and all our town centres in Blaenau Gwent.”

– Team Manager, Regeneration Opportunities

“We were particularly interested in Iain’s ‘audit, engage, encourage, promote’ methodology and we’re starting to see the benefit of the first two phases. Our agents, landlords and community partners are more engaged with us, and The Vacant Shops Academy approach has started some really useful conversations, which we are excited to see progress.

The data from The Vacant Shops Academy is really thorough and well explained. It’s really handy to see common problems and understand any barriers to letting. The recommendations are useful, well thought out, and we will definitely be taking many of them forward.”

– Heath Gunter, former Chief Executive, Cheltenham BID