The Vacant Shops Academy

“You should aim to halve your #highstreet vacancy rate in 18 months.”

I’m never sure whether to actually say this out loud when talking with place leaders about our ‘audit, engage, encourage, promote’ approach to reducing the number of empty units in your town or city centre, and improve the mix of uses.

I 100% believe you can. We’ve seen very different places, from different starting points, ten years apart, do just that. Others are on track to do it too.

What’s more, now we’re working on the 36th location we’ve taken the approach with #TheVacantShopsAcademy, we can see half way through the process why you might not, what’s missing from your project.

At the heart of it is two things…

• Having a tackling vacancy-focused ‘place partnership’ involving agents, landlords, businesses, community, cultural organisations, council(s), chamber, BID if you have one plus others identified locally, working together on this.
• Looking beyond #retail, #hospitality and services (though they all continue to have a big part to play) to other uses: arts & crafts, creative, culture, community, history & heritage, leisure, education, health, health & wellbeing, as go-to options for taking on units.

If you do both, we’re confident you’ll hit the target. Some places – like Wantage in Oxfordshire, which was our first – do it quicker.

Halve your vacancy rate in 18 months. Maybe further, faster.

Why wouldn’t you go for it…?

Shout about the good stuff in your town or city centre…

…and please don’t let empty shops dominate the narrative.

The message is the same whether you have significant vacancy numbers in the mid / high teens or over 20 per cent, or lower rates with some tricky long-term empty, landmark buildings and concern among residents and businesses about the changing mix of uses.

For sure have a tackling #highstreet vacancy-focused ‘place partnership’ in play to get agents, landlords, businesses, community, cultural organisations, councils, chamber and BID if you have one working together on identifying barriers and solutions, but take time too to highlight the positives.

‘Promote’ is a very important 4th element of our approach which also runs through ‘audit, engage, encourage’. It means the place and its businesses promoting what you have already, independents, nationals, in #retail, #hospitality, services, other uses, and features of your place that will attract people in.

Do include in that the vacants, but as an opportunity, with lettings details easily accessible if you have them.

How often do you look at local social media platforms or your traditional press and find all the talk and regular stories picturing boarded-up empties, is focused on the negative.

Like our friend Laura Harris who’s working with a growing network “to challenge the national media’s doom-and-gloom narrative”, it’s a crucial part of improving your own town and city centre too.

If your place is struggling with this issue and we can help, do please let us know…

How exciting is this…!

“We’re opening up conversations about how culture can help revitalise the #highstreet, drawing communities back— especially those underrepresented in traditional theatre spaces.”

Just thrilled to be working with the team at Northern Soul Productions and three local BID teams ‘Keep On Keepin’ On: Revitalising the High Street with Northern Soul’.

As they say: “Keep On Keepin’ On isn’t just an incredible night of theatre — it’s a catalyst for change. 

“In partnership with The Vacant Shops Academy, we’re working with local BIDs and independent retailers in each of our tour locations – Crewe, Blackburn and Blackpool – to explore how they can adapt to post-pandemic consumer behaviours, strengthening their personal resilience to positively impact their businesses and high streets. 

“At the same time, we’re engaging cross-sector partners in a deeper exploration of the role of culture in town centre development, reinforcing the vital connections between culture, commerce, and community.”

‘Keep On Keepin’ On’ is supported by Arts Council England and 14 partner organisations. 

Do connect with Northern Soul Productions for performance and ticket details…

“It’s our city, and a city we’re very proud of.”

It was great to share a platform with two council cabinet members at the Heritage Network ‘High Street Regeneration: Collaborating for Success’ event in Newport this week, and to hear their take on the past, present and future of Newport city centre.

Interesting too to walk-see the city centre solo and later join the tour led by council regen and place team members. As the image says: “There’s a Lot to Like”.

It was encouraging also to hear just how much is already known about the vacant property they have, the barriers to let and the thinking about what could occupy them going forward.

Earlier the conference had focused for a time on the role of arts & crafts, creative, culture and community, and the confidence that these sectors have an even more significant role to play yet was heartening too.

From our perspective we were able to share with delegates here and from other towns in Wales and further afield, our belief in the importance of having a positive, proactive ‘place partnership’ to lead on tackling #highstreet vacancy, and case studies from places that have seen big reductions in empty unit numbers as a result.

I closed with: “We know how to do this. Let’s go”, hoping the message is reaching all the places with vacancy rates in the mid / high teens or over 20%, plus those with large, tricky-to-let units or concerns about the mix of uses they now have.

If that’s your town or city centre we’d love to hear from you…

Having a positive, proactive ‘place partnership’ on the case makes a huge difference to how quickly and sustainably you’ll reduce your #highstreet vacancy rates and improve your town or city centre mix of uses.

Why…?

I’m looking forward to making the case in a presentation for the Heritage Network at their ‘High Street Regeneration: Collaborating for Success’ event in Newport this week.

Our experience over 12 years now points to a range of reasons why we see bringing together agents, landlords, businesses, community, cultural organisations, councils, chamber and BID where you have one, as a must-do…

Firstly tackling vacancy is more than just an agent-landlords thing. The commercial property market has its own challenges and in any case – as a survey we did of #TheVacantShopsAcademy locations showed – on average 40% of visibly vacant units don’t have agents involved anyway, so no lettings detail, no easy route to connecting with landlords;

Your existing businesses and community can give you invaluable insights into what use types they’d most value in empty units to help you with what to try recruit;

Some of the barriers to getting empty units back into play are hard for a landlord or incoming tenant to tackle solo, but other members of the partnership can help, starting by taking a look inside the vacants as a team;

Potential occupiers on the arts & crafts to health & wellbeing list of ‘alternative’ or additional use types often find it harder to navigate the challenges around securing a unit than more regular #retail or #hospitality do, so a partnership approach can help;

Running a pop up or meanwhile use project typically works much better if it is town-wide rather than a one-stakeholder, one-off;

Promoting the place, opportunities there are to take on units, and incoming businesses and organisations as they arrive is so much more powerful if all the stakeholders are doing that together.

And so it goes on…

It’ll be interesting to get feedback from conference delegates on the rationale, and we’re always keen to hear from places with mid / high teens or over 20% vacancy rates, and especially those considering deploying the new High Street Rental Auctions power.

Do let us know what you think…?

So another 8 places sign up to be early adopters for the new High Street Rental Auctions power for local councils.

3 in London, 5 outside, taking the tally to 11.

It’s going to be fascinating to see how they get on, and the number of vacant units it helps them bring back into play.

I’d love to hear from local teams working on this to get a sense of how it’s going.

The feedback we’ve had from other towns and cities that have looked at this new option is that it’s very much a last resort for when they’re struggling to progress one unit or another.

We’ve also heard places frustrated that the very vacants they’d most like to target aren’t going to be realistic candidates for one reason or another.

As an organisation that’s working with local teams to tackle #highstreet vacancy and improve their mix of uses, we’re staying hopeful that this new reason to focus on the issue will still have a spin off benefit…

…that places will take our ‘place partnership’ approach and see such significant reductions in vacancy that they don’t need actually trigger the auction part of the process.

After all at either end of a timeline Wantage Oxfordshire all but wiped out a national average vacancy rate by reducing empty unit numbers from 23 to 3 in 18 months. 10 years or so on, Aberdeen Union Street halved an even bigger 25% rate in the same (short) duration…

…and neither had the Rental Auctions power to call on. So if they can, why can’t your town or city centre, even if you’re starting with a rate in the mid-high teens or over 20%.

We know how it’s done.

Do let us know if you’re factoring HSRA into your tackling vacancy plans…

So £1.5 billion in funding for 75 communities. It ought to be enough for a fraction to be allocated to tackling #highstreet vacancy and finally get the long-stuck national rate off 14% into single figures.

If every one of the 75 listed locations that has vacancy in the mid / high teens or over 20% gets a positive, proactive ‘place partnership’ on the case, that’s exactly what will happen.

So will it…?

The government announcement and follow up guidance is understandably general given that the key message is that it’s for local people to decide.

But given how often empty shops and frustration with the mix of uses in town and city centres comes up in consultation, conversation, surveys and media reports, it’s surely going to be a priority in all the places where vacancy is at significant levels.

“Local people to see their high streets revived, community hubs saved and public services transformed and strengthened through the Plan for Neighbourhoods…”

That’s the aim. Now for the detail. 

Residents and businesses agree tackling vacancy is important. Getting #retail, #hospitality, services and that list of other uses from arts & crafts through community to health & wellbeing in. It makes a huge difference to the look and feel of our places, their vibrancy, vitality and resilience, to confidence, morale and inward investment, to how often we want to go in and stay for, and whether or not we encourage others to. 

Crucially we know how to do this. Places can target halving their vacancy rate in 18 months, some will do it faster.

Surely, surely it’s time. Or is it just me…