“There’s a really interesting tackling town centre vacancy story emerging here.”
When we ran our ‘audit’ in August 2024, Crewe town centre had 24 vacant units out of 141 so a headline vacancy rate of 17% and above the national average which is reported as being around 13.5%.
Today – tho there’ve been some more units become empty and available – a number of lettings mean Crewe’s total looks to be lower.
Everyone involved will emphasise that they’re on a journey and there’s more to do yet but still it feels like there are learnings other places starting their own tackling ‘high street’ vacancy work could draw on.
First is that central to our approach is for local teams to set up a ‘place partnership’ and focus on this issue, while emphasising that’s not the same as a committee so doesn’t need meet regularly, if at all, as long as there are good connectors keeping all the partners up to speed. Crewe’s approach looks more like that model.
Another fundamental element is that places look beyond retail, hospitality and services to what we call an ‘alternative’ / additional list of potential occupier types. That includes arts & crafts, creative, culture, community. For some places – and Crewe is one of those – these looked to be more promising go-to options, at least to start with. And so it’s proved with 3 or 4 of the newer lettings being in that category, with another just announced this week.
Third has been a number of new developments and infrastructure projects – so not relying on just one to make the difference. Among its additions Crewe has or will soon: a new Youth Zone, an archives centre, a community-led art gallery (called Platform), a co-working space (by TownSq), improved connectivity for cycling & walking to and from the rail station (Southern Gateway Link) and, underway, a new temporary town centre park to boost dwell-time.
Lastly, the town centre had five large empty units left behind by departing retail brands. One is now home to Platform, two others have upper floor residential conversion underway, and the last two are in planning for the same.
As I say, much still to do, but it’s encouraging so far. It’d be great to hear from placemaking colleagues in town or city centres on a similar journey…
