The Vacant Shops Academy

“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… 

Is your place on the front foot to make the most of it to drive down your #highstreet vacancy levels and improve the mix of uses…?

It’s the time of year when typically interest in taking on space in our town and city centres picks up.

So…

Do you have a ‘place partnership’ in play to bring together stakeholders and consult businesses and residents about what they’d like to see take on units;

Are its members visiting any vacants you have to see what the barriers to getting them let are, and how each partner can play a role;

Do you have all the empties listed on a single platform and are you promoting them as an opportunity;

Have you sounded out arts & crafts, creative, culture, community, history & heritage, leisure, education, health and health & wellbeing organisations to see if they could take space alongside #retail, #hospitality and services;

Is there a place-wide pop up shop or ‘meanwhile… use’ project ready to make a start on opening up the trickier ones;

Do you have all the buildings and streetscene looking the best they can be…?

Or are you thinking tackling vacancy is “just an agents-landlords thing” and trusting to that.

Would love to hear from towns and city centres who’d like to take up the positive, proactive approach. We know it works.

That was the enthusiastically upbeat title of a presentation I delivered this week to Warwickshire Towns Network…

…an opportunity to set out for local #placemaking teams why we so strongly believe in the ‘place partnership’ approach whatever empty ‘shop’ numbers you have, and the elements we’re seeing that contribute to our optimism about the #highstreet.

Places are delivering significant reductions in their vacancy rates…

A lengthening list of brands are opening stores and venues, and publishing requirement lists for new locations;

We’re seeing more from our list of ‘alternative’ or maybe better described as ‘additional’ uses taking space;

More councils are investing in grant schemes to overcome barriers to letting and improving the ‘look’ of our town and city centres;

We’re learning how to re-purpose former department stores, large ex-brand units and banks;

Landlords and place leaders are seeing the benefits of pop up or ‘meanwhile… use’ beyond simple rates mitigation and as a way to test and build a track record for uses that will add to your mix and stay long term;

New events, activations, #streetart, ‘promote’ campaigns & more are being funded, delivered and extended, so adding to the vibrancy and vitality of our places.

As we always emphasise, it’s challenging still and there’s lots to do, but there are #HighStreetPositives, not least of which, on tackling vacancy, is…

We know how to do this…!

As a Ps. It’s worth saying that one reason for our cheerfulness is chatting to owners of new shops and venues in towns we’re working about why they’ve opened up and their positivity looking ahead. After all, without them….

An enjoyable and insightful visit to Grimsby including sitting in on the latest Town Centre Regeneration Event by the local 2025 Group.

Great to get an update on the various projects and initiatives that are giving the town a genuine sense of momentum…

A transformative, cinema-led leisure and new market scheme;

The #highstreet streetscene improvement project;

Redevelopment of the derelict St James House building as a new multi-functional business hub;

Bringing an NHS community diagnostic centre with potential for 146,000 additional tests per year to the heart of the town’s shopping offer;

The incoming Horizon Youth activity complex for young people.

For our part, supporting the ‘place partnership’ to work together on getting the remaining vacant units, especially on and around its ‘high street’ back in play – maybe short term during the development and then beyond that – is hugely helped by being part of a bigger story…

…and conversations about the role arts & crafts, creative, culture, community, history & heritage, leisure and education can play, alongside #retail, #hospitality and services, feel key.

It’s a town centre that’s changing quickly with, for businesses and organisations, brand and independent, an opportunity now to be a part of that, with a variety (but relatively small number) of available units, many in attractive, some of them heritage, buildings to take on…

Looking forward already to seeing how that’s playing out by the time of our next visit.

“Does our town centre really need more of those?”

It’s a comment you often hear when a new letting is announced because residents and existing businesses don’t think it adds to the #retail, #hospitality or services mix.

“I don’t go to town any more it’s just full of…” And then the list of whatever use types have wound the writer up.

That’s another commonly heard negative reaction to what ought to be a positive – one more empty unit being taken.

They explain why we argue that you don’t need to have a mid / high teens or over 20 per cent vacancy rate in your town or city centre to benefit from a ‘place partnership’.

In fact if that’s your place you’ve maybe got an even stronger reason. If the balance moves away from the kinds of uses that attract people in and help business owners to feel part of a positive something, then footfall and dwell time can drop away and your #highstreet goes quiet.

So why a ‘place partnership’…?

The answer is that having agents, landlords, businesses, community, cultural organisations, council(s), chamber, BID where there is one and others identified locally, working together means you can do more, better, quicker and more sustainably to strengthen your town centre.

• you can work out together what would add to the mix of uses and, as a team, try attract those to your location;
• you can, together, go visit vacant units, work out what the barriers to getting them back into use are and try tackle them with different stakeholders playing their part;
• you can ‘promote’ the place and the businesses and organisations you already have, present the empties as opportunities and highlight the newcomers as they arrive, together.

If not, a small number of empties can become bigger, and those you have turn tricky, long term – especially if they’re ex-department stores or big brand shops or previously banks.

If you start celebrating having almost no empties or none you might quickly find the overheated market sends rents rising and sees some of your favourite, long-established businesses closing. Instead you’d be better getting the ‘place partnership’ finding ways to make more space available for newcomers, growth and expansions.

Do any of those scenarios chime in your town or city centre…? Are you on the case…? It’d be great to hear from you…