The Vacant Shops Academy is an initiative from prbi, founded in 2022 by Iain Nicholson.
Iain is a placemaking specialist focused on tackling high street challenges including reducing empty shops numbers and improving the mix of uses.
Much of his work in town and city centres has been with councils, BIDs, agents, landlords, businesses, communities, cultural organisations and others, using an ‘audit, engage, encourage, promote’ approach to help reduce high street vacancy and introduce ‘meanwhile… use’ and pop-up projects.
In June 2023, Robbie Nicholson joined the Academy as Research Associate to strengthen its ‘audit, engage’ work, moving up to Research & Operations Manager in October 2025.
“Sometimes in under 18 months, sometimes longer, but the Oxfordshire town centres we’ve worked have seen empty shop numbers halved while we’ve been there.”
From Twitter
“Some towns are in decline, definitely. People like @prbi_Iain are doing a wonderful job at trying to save them!!”
The Vacant Shops Academy’s ‘audit, engage, encourage, promote’ approach, our guides and briefing notes series and ‘Meanwhile…use’ toolkit have been created to make that learning available to councils, BIDs, town teams and other placemakers needing to drive down the key highstreet vacancy metric.
We are currently working with local tackling highstreet vacancy teams led by councils and / or BIDs in 45 locations including…
Aberdeen (Union Street), Blaenau Gwent (Abertillery & Tredegar), Cheltenham, Crewe, Henley, Monmouthshire (Chepstow & Monmouth), Poole, Reading, North Yorkshire (Richmond & Leyburn), South Gloucestershire (8 highstreets), Sunderland.
Plus, in 2024-25…
Rugby, Aberdeen 2 (upper floors study), Ripon, Crewe (pop up shop scoping), Stratford-on-Avon, Alcester & Southam, Putney, Brackley & Towcester, Brentwood, Shenfield & Ingatestone, Brynmawr, Grimsby, Dovercourt, Southend, Llanelli, Carmarthen & Ammanford, Stirling, Fleetwood, Galashiels, Dunfermline.
And so far in 2026-27…
Forest of Dean (Cinderford & Coleford).
More about Iain…
A former BBC radio journalist, Iain drew on his background as a leading PR & Communications for business specialist to work with placemakers in town and city centres around the UK.
From May 2022 to September 2024, Iain combined his work at The Vacant Shops Academy with a part-time role as Strategic Development Lead for the Institute of Place Management (IPM).
Iain’s earlier track record working in town and city centres includes a two-and-a-half-year stint as the interim City Centre Manager for Oxford City Council.
For five years, from March 2013, Iain, along with Town Team colleague Mim Norvell (and supported by Neil Wild), drove the Wantage town centre vitality project, focusing on the challenge of bringing empty shops back into use. The project won at the 2014 Great British High Streets Awards.
The Banbury town centre vitality project, which Iain also worked on with Neil, was a finalist at the 2016 Great British High Street Awards. The project began in April 2014 and was renewed every year until 2018.
Between 2017–19, Iain also supported the team that developed and launched Banbury BID, and between August 2017 to September 2018 worked on the Independent Shops Project with local partners in Abingdon.
From March 2015–17, Iain and Neil ran an acclaimed pop-up shop project in Wallingford, and from January 2017–18, worked together on a town team project for local partners in Swindon town centre.
“I feel that @prbi_Iain is one of the good guys and we need as many of them as possible. People with experience, but also people willing to share.”
From Twitter
Quotes
“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
“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.
– Nicholas Brown (Head of Economic Inclusion and Business Engagement) & Ben Cluett (Economic Development Officer), Southend City Council
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.”
“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
