So another 8 places sign up to be early adopters for the new High Street Rental Auctions power for local councils.
3 in London, 5 outside, taking the tally to 11.
It’s going to be fascinating to see how they get on, and the number of vacant units it helps them bring back into play.
I’d love to hear from local teams working on this to get a sense of how it’s going.
The feedback we’ve had from other towns and cities that have looked at this new option is that it’s very much a last resort for when they’re struggling to progress one unit or another.
We’ve also heard places frustrated that the very vacants they’d most like to target aren’t going to be realistic candidates for one reason or another.
As an organisation that’s working with local teams to tackle #highstreet vacancy and improve their mix of uses, we’re staying hopeful that this new reason to focus on the issue will still have a spin off benefit…
…that places will take our ‘place partnership’ approach and see such significant reductions in vacancy that they don’t need actually trigger the auction part of the process.
After all at either end of a timeline Wantage Oxfordshire all but wiped out a national average vacancy rate by reducing empty unit numbers from 23 to 3 in 18 months. 10 years or so on, Aberdeen Union Street halved an even bigger 25% rate in the same (short) duration…
…and neither had the Rental Auctions power to call on. So if they can, why can’t your town or city centre, even if you’re starting with a rate in the mid-high teens or over 20%.
We know how it’s done.
Do let us know if you’re factoring HSRA into your tackling vacancy plans…
