Category Archives: News Centre

#placemaking friends had to endure a bit of a ranting me this week as (yet) another national ‘death of the #highstreet’ headline disrupted one of my timelines. It was especially maddening because I read it while I was in Sunderland … Continue reading →

🔑 New openings, fresh investment, promising pipeline. I ask having been out & about for #TheVacantShopsAcademy in another location – the second in a few weeks – where the headline ‘visibly vacant’ number now looks very different having run ‘audit, … Continue reading →

Are flaws in the business rates reliefs system contributing to #highstreet units staying vacant longer than needs be…? What changes would #placemaking and #property colleagues like to see based on your learning on the ground…? 🤔 The government has a … Continue reading →

Thought it might be of interest to share a digest of some of the emails we’ve had from #highstreet #property agents in the last week. “Hi Iain we sold the property to an owner occupier a few months ago and … Continue reading →

As promised, here’s an early data output from one of the locations we’re running ‘audit, engage’ as part of a tackling empty #highstreet shops issues project which, hopefully, you’ll find is food for thought… Our town centre walk-see there in … Continue reading →

So here’s some #highstreet #property stories you may not be seeing in the headlines…? As ever none of this is to deny that it’s challenging in our town and city centres. We’re still losing businesses that would stay if we … Continue reading →

“Report confirms stats on death of the high street”, ran the headline. One of a frustrating timelines-filling set this week. Thing is tho the stats it set out do nothing of the sort…! We’ve been trying to unravel from quite … Continue reading →

More than half the ‘next steps’ narrative suggestions in our #TheVacantShopsAcademy reports for places we’re supporting to tackle vacancy are less directly about the empties themselves and more around wider #highstreet #placemaking. Very often that’s included ways to bring more … Continue reading →

Encouraging return visit to Chepstow to check in on the units that looked to be vacant in our ‘audit’ walk-see there earlier in the year, and build on the insights from #property agents in the ‘engage’ phase. A number of … Continue reading →

There’s much conversation when we get to the 3rd – ‘encourage’ – phase of our approach to tackling empty shops issues, about the different types of businesses and organisations we might try attract as a place to fill vacant units. … Continue reading →