Author Archives: Iain Nicholson

First signs of Spring in your town or city centre…? If you’re still togged up in gloves, scarf and woolly hat and think I may be losing it, bear with… I ask because tho this is typically the time of … Continue reading →

Who are you talking to as potential new tenants for the empty units in your town or city centre…? I really hope that if you’re one of the potential lead organisations – a council, BID or chamber – you are … Continue reading →

Let’s step up our efforts to get former banks in town and city centres back into use. With another tranche of closures having just been announced there are now more and more places with this as a challenge, and it’s … Continue reading →

I’ve shared almost 100 positive #highstreet news stories from my timeline so far this month. It’s January. There’s 3 days more to go. And still. Averaging 4 sent across, every day. I get that it’s challenging in our town and … Continue reading →

What do your vacant #highstreet units look like on the inside, especially if they’re the long-time, tricky-to-let ones. Do you know…? Has your tackling vacancy-focused ‘place partnership’ been and taken a look. It’d be great to hear if you have … Continue reading →

For those of you used to seeing (or maybe even using) the words “greedy” or “absentee” every time you read “landlord”, conversations in recent weeks have suggested some alternatives. How about “struggling”, “anxious”, “at a loss”, “prepared to try things”…? … Continue reading →

A really intriguing part of our tackling #highstreet vacancy work of late has been conversations with local housing association colleagues, school, college, library / leisure services leaders and, next week, police officers about playing a part – even as far … Continue reading →

Promoting your existing town or city centre businesses and making sure you support them as best you can is a really important, but sometimes lost, part of a tackling #highstreet vacancy project. In our work with #TheVacantShopsAcademy we often find … Continue reading →

It’s interesting how often a single empty building or a small number of them feel like they hold the key to the future for a whole town or city centre, even when they’re only one or a few out of … Continue reading →