Category Archives: News Centre

What’s behind the shutters, boards, maybe vinyls of those vacant units in your town or city centre. Take a look (if you haven’t already). It’s something we’d really encourage ‘place partnership’ members on tackling #highstreet vacancy projects to do. Get … Continue reading →

Tackling #highstreet vacancy. It’s not just about the numbers. Several of our recent #TheVacantShopsAcademy commissions are in places that have – by comparison – relatively small empty unit counts. But they do warrant the tackling vacancy-focused ‘place partnership’ approach as … Continue reading →

Bit small for a shop, maybe. Maybe. What is your town or city centre doing with its decommissioned red phone boxes…? The question came up this week as part of a wider conversation about the (much bigger…?) role arts & … Continue reading →

A really enjoyable day visiting Brackley & Towcester – two really strong indie towns with #highstreet #retail businesses it’s well worth stopping by to see if you’re in that part of the world (of which more in future posts). As … Continue reading →

Struggling. Ailing. One in the headline. The other in the intro. Both words used to describe the #highstreet by a national media report this week. Meanwhile, in a parallel universe, I was writing notes on 4 #TheVacantShopsAcademy locations: + Place … Continue reading →

The national ‘shop’ vacancy rate is said to be 14%. And has been stuck around that number for some time. Can we get it into single figures…? Single figures. Does that seem wildly optimistic…? I ask the question as #placemaking … Continue reading →

We’ve focused a lot in recent weeks on what feels like the huge potential of arts & crafts, creative, culture, community, history & heritage, leisure, education, health and health & wellbeing as go-to options for places tackling #highstreet vacancy. They … Continue reading →

So we’ve written a ‘how to’ guide to tackling #highstreet vacancy… …or at least an introduction to our ‘audit, engage, encourage, promote’ approach as we’ve run it or are underway in 33 #TheVacantShopsAcademy locations. Hopefully it’ll be helpful to town … Continue reading →

I know a number of #highstreet placemaking colleagues are working with an arcade as part of their town or city centre project… …maybe influenced by its attractiveness as a destination, its #heritage status, the size of its units making it … Continue reading →