Kind of neat to find myself in this city as we approach another tackling #highstreet vacancy milestone…
It was 24/12 three years ago next week that I shut the lap top on my Oxford City Centre Manager role and started #TheVacantShopsAcademy.
It’s been an exciting journey so far. Visiting towns and cities I’d not seen, meeting great people working hard to make their places the best they can be, and learning a huge amount.
We’ve been sooooo lucky to have been able to take our ‘audit, engage, encourage, promote’ approach to 36 different locations to date, with new additions in the pipeline for 2025.
Thanks to the efforts of those local stakeholders: agents, landlords, businesses, community, cultural organisations, councils, chambers, BIDs and others identified locally, we’re starting to see some very striking changes in the headline empty ‘shops’ numbers, and places improving the mix of use types they have.
Another intriguing year lies ahead, including seeing how the new High Street Rental Auction power for local authorities plays out.
We’ll also, I believe, see the additional uses alongside #retail, #hospitality & services: arts & crafts, creative, cultural, community, history & heritage, leisure, education, health, health & wellbeing, continue to play a bigger part as the learning about the extra support they often need is shared more widely.
Challenging times still, especially in town and city centres where empties are an issue but who’ve not yet got a tackling vacancy-focused ‘place partnership’ in play, but positives too…
…and maybe, finally, we can see that national 14% vacancy rate turn…!
