The Vacant Shops Academy

A nearby coastline could be a big asset for tackling #highstreet vacancy and improving the mix of uses in your town or city centre.

But how…?

It seems like connectivity, competition and confidence might be key to this.

• Is the beach or the view or its working life attracting people;
• Are they the same as the target ages and demographic for the businesses you have;

Does the branding and marketing of your coastline (or waterway as the same might apply to those) include the town centre too;

Do they travel (drive…?) to your coastline, enjoy that and head home without venturing to the town centre;

• Do you have great wayfinding and positive information sources there to point people to town and encourage them to go, and if it’s a distance, attractive ‘transport’ options to help;

Or have you sited all the things they might need for a day out in the coastline area so they don’t actually need to go use your town…?

It may even be that your visitors offer a clue to elements of the #retail, #hospitality or services your ‘place partnership’ aims for to fill your empties. Or that going after arts & crafts, creative, culture, community, history & heritage; leisure uses is a good fit.

It’d be great to hear from #placemaking and #property colleagues who’ve made a coastline or waterway asset work for your town centre.

Artists, crafters, creative and culture groups could for sure play a bigger part in our town and city centres.

We know from our work with #TheVacantShopsAcademy that many would love to if we can overcome the barriers.

So it’s exciting to be connecting with creatives in one of our locations to try assess interest levels.

“Would you like to have an arts & crafts, creative, culture, community-based shop in your local town centre…? Maybe, short term, starting as part of a pop-up shop project, but longer term if it works well for you. Could you stock and run the shop on your own or would it work better with other makers – either people you know already or could meet as part of a wider project. Are there other ways you think creative individuals, groups and organisations could get involved.”
 
Examples we’ve see in other places include:

• Makers Collectives – where groups of artists and crafters combine to run a shop;
• Art Galleries which feature a number of artists, and they run together;
• Community art classes and workshops run from town centre units;
• Markets (both indoor and outdoor) that feature local crafts as all or part of their offer;
• ‘Knit & natter’ groups and others where people get together to practice their art or craft skills in a town centre setting;
• Wall art, shutterart or on-street art installations where local artists and crafters contribute to making their place look better.

Accepting that there are barriers to overcome here, it feels like a sector that has huge potential to help with tackling #highstreet vacancy and the wider #placemaking conversation. Let’s see.

What do you think…?

Where do we get the next generation of #highstreet shopkeepers from.

The question was prompted by looking through the list of suggestions on our previous post which asked for “a list of new shops you’d love to see in our town or city centres, something that you personally would make the journey in to use, and do so often enough that (with others doing the same) the owner can run it viably, long term.”

Suggestions included:

• bookshops
• eco / refill, zero waste store
• grocers, butchers, bakers
• toy shop
• baby equipment centre
• clothes shop
• hardware / DIY store
  & more, but do check out the full list on that thread.

So how do we help make that happen. Is there some kind of national initiative we can turn to in one or more of those sectors to deliver a group of would-be new owners….? Or is it something each local tackling vacancy ‘place partnership’ will need do for itself…?

What do you think…?

To me the options look like:

• existing #retail businesses expanding into a second town centre based on the success of their first;
• markets or trade shows or online giving people a start they can then build on by taking a shop;
• for arts & crafts, creative, a makers collective producing spin off ventures from amongst the team;
• children of existing owners continuing the family business or similar;
• some kind of industry training scheme;
• career change with people leaving ‘a job in the city’ to open up on their own;
• schools and colleges and towns themselves facilitating ‘markets’ for students to sell things they’ve made.

What have I missed…?

And before I get the Pollyanna comparison again, I understand that who’ll run these new shops is only one on a long list of challenging considerations we need to tackle, but please bear with…

Let’s write a list of new shops we’d love to see in our town or city centres.

Just one rule. It’s got to be something that you personally would make the journey in to use, and do so often enough that (with others doing the same) the owner can run it viably, long term.

Go…!

I ask for two practical reasons.

First because this is a challenge we set for local teams working on tackling #highstreet vacancy with #TheVacantShopsAcademy. Talk to residents and existing businesses about what’s missing and what they’d like to see (and use), then go out and try recruit those types to help fill empty units.

It’s also though, important for places that don’t have lots of empty units but are concerned about the way uses they do have has changed in recent years, and are keen to try maximise the benefit of what the remaining few are let to and add to their current mix

I get that #retail is only part of the story and that a range of other options – arts & crafts, creative, culture, community, history & heritage, leisure, education, health and health & wellbeing – as well as #hospitality and services, may be on target lists to.

So… over to you. What’s the one new shop you’d bring to your place if you could and why…?

Would anyone mind if I think optimistically of the prospects for the #highstreet in 2025.

I know many of you will have – as I did – spent time over Christmas and New Year wading through the tide of gloomster releases and reporting on footfall, sales and the like.

So how do I get to optimism despite all that…? Well.

The first set of actual figures from national brands are almost entirely positive: “exceptional”, “a bumper Christmas performance…”, “strong Christmas growth…”, “sales have soared as Black Friday and Christmas campaigns pay off…”, “new records for the Christmas period”, “another record golden quarter.”

+ Already some brands are setting out plans to open additional stores. Waterstones for example “plan to open at least 12 new stores in the UK this year.”

+ We ended 2024 sharing with #TheVacantShopsAcademy locations and others a lengthy set of requirements lists from agents and property directors setting out their targets for new stores and venues. They’ll be cracking on with those now.

And from towns and city centres we’re working with:

+ council and BID teams checking in on the initial vacancy data from our ‘audit’ are now reporting ‘empty & available’ units turning to ‘under offer’ and that leading to ‘let’;

+ places that saw vacancy rise in 2023 are also reporting new openings and deals nearing completion to further reduce their headline rate;

+ As more locations get a ‘place partnership’ in play (rather than leaving tackling vacancy be ‘just an agents-landlord’ thing) they’ll start to see vacancy reduce too.

And as places find new ways to support ‘alternative’ or ‘additional’ uses – arts & crafts, creative, culture, community, history & heritage, leisure, education, health and health & wellbeing – to take up spaces, that’ll further impact the figures.

Hopefully from that you’ll see why I favour #HighStreetPositives over gloom.

As a song you’ll have heard a bit in recent weeks runs: “You may say I’m a dreamer. But I’m not the only one…”

And as a Ps. Just so I’m not called Pollyanna again. I should say two things. I get that it remains challenging, there are ‘headwinds’ and we’ve much still to do, and I know that there are one or two brands making less positive noises. But…

What do #property and #placemaking colleagues think…?

Really liked that our first briefing note of the new year was setting out for a local school suggestions of the very many ways they can play a significant and impactful part in a tackling #highstreet vacancy project for their town.

Education is one key element of a group of potential uses for vacant units which also includes arts & crafts, creative, culture, community, history & heritage, leisure, health and health & wellbeing, alongside #retail, #hospitality and services…

…but – as my note showed – there’s so much more they can contribute.

On taking vacant units, it’s not that easy to find many examples across the places we’re working with #TheVacantShopsAcademy or visiting because there are challenges around staff time, classroom & exam commitments, funding.

Certainly though, on a pop up basis and possibly for longer, we believe a school, college or university could take on an empty unit or building:

+ As extra classrooms;

+ For arts & crafts exhibition or performance space;

+ To showcase or even sell student-made products;

+ As a community hub for parents;

+ To host inter-generational workshops where young people and older exchange skills and learning.

Beyond that students, their parents, former pupils, feeder schools and local companies signed up as school or college business partners can also play a part in:

+ consultation about what the town centre needs going forward;

+ streetart, wall art & shutterart – both design and delivery;

+ planting projects;

+ live briefs where students work with town centre shops or venues on business planning, marketing, social media;

& more.

We’ve seen proactive examples of education directly involved in their town or city centre including Gloucester, Poole, Kingston. No doubt property and placemaking colleagues will know of others they can share. It’d be great to hear from you…

…and we very much hope 2025 will be a year those case studies spread. 

Wandering our nearest town centre and wondering: if it ran a survey of residents and businesses to ask what they’d like to see take on its empty #highstreet unit opportunities, what answers we’d get.

What would be the response if you asked residents and businesses the same in your town or city centre…?

It’s not a place we’ve ever run our tackling vacancy approach so the backstory and barriers to let of the vacants it has is intriguing.

It does have…

+ A mix of national #retail and #hospitality brands;

+ Strong representation of banks and building societies;

+ A diverse and growing number of food & drink outlets;

+ Established independents including an award-winning bookshop;

+ A convenience offer with new multicultural additions;

+ Health & beauty, salons, coffee shops, bookmakers and charity shops are well represented;

+ It’s one of the places that’s added a library, hotel, co-working, health services, refill store and a makers collective to the mix.

It has a world-renowned out-of-town outlet village marking its 30th birthday plus a new M&S, Next-led shopping zone, two rail stations, and a major, edge-of-town housing development adding to its population.

Interestingly for this conversation it also has a number of vacant units, different sizes and condition, some of those longtime now, many of them large ex- national brand stores or former banks.

So what would our survey say people would like to fill them…? Does that match what this market town might attract. And how might a ‘place partnership’ get there quicker.

What do you think…?

We talk a lot on here about empty units, and what might take those spaces, about town and city centres, policy and projects, awesome heritage buildings, #streetart and installations…

…and maybe not enough about the most important part of all this – the people.

I often say there’s no such thing as a council. It’s not a thing. If it’s not getting something the way you’d like in your place, it’s not because there’s something inherently wrong with the infrastructure, and when you see one doing something great it won’t certainly mean yours will do the same. What makes the difference in these and all the organisations involved in #place making is the people.

With our focus on tackling #highstreet vacancy they’re the ones who’ll make up that ‘place partnership’: the individual proactive agents, engaged landlords, business owners and their teams, community leaders and volunteers, cultural organisation managers and creatives, councillors and officers, BID CEOs, their boards and staff. 

To everyone who’s working hard to make their place the best it can be. It’s great working with you and seeing the impact you’re making…!

It’s challenging still but there’s sooooo much great work being done, so many #HighStreetPositives to share and learn from.

Locations we’re working with for #TheVacantShopsAcademy are seeing striking reductions in empty ‘shops’ numbers, with encouraging signs of more to come, if we can only inspire other place leaders and managers to take on the approach, to believe it works, because it does…

…and that, finally, the long-stuck 14% national vacancy rate will start to fall.

Here’s hoping…! 

Kind of neat to find myself in this city as we approach another tackling #highstreet vacancy milestone…

It was 24/12 three years ago next week that I shut the lap top on my Oxford City Centre Manager role and started #TheVacantShopsAcademy.

It’s been an exciting journey so far. Visiting towns and cities I’d not seen, meeting great people working hard to make their places the best they can be, and learning a huge amount.

We’ve been sooooo lucky to have been able to take our ‘audit, engage, encourage, promote’ approach to 36 different locations to date, with new additions in the pipeline for 2025.

Thanks to the efforts of those local stakeholders: agents, landlords, businesses, community, cultural organisations, councils, chambers, BIDs and others identified locally, we’re starting to see some very striking changes in the headline empty ‘shops’ numbers, and places improving the mix of use types they have.

Another intriguing year lies ahead, including seeing how the new High Street Rental Auction power for local authorities plays out.

We’ll also, I believe, see the additional uses alongside #retail, #hospitality & services: arts & crafts, creative, cultural, community, history & heritage, leisure, education, health, health & wellbeing, continue to play a bigger part as the learning about the extra support they often need is shared more widely.

Challenging times still, especially in town and city centres where empties are an issue but who’ve not yet got a tackling vacancy-focused ‘place partnership’ in play, but positives too…

…and maybe, finally, we can see that national 14% vacancy rate turn…! 

“It does need more shops, so that there’s more to choose from.”

This from one of the people interviewed by a TV crew as part of a piece about the #highstreet…

…and it struck me how often you hear that if you talk to people about their town or city centres.

But wait. What about “forget #retail”, “change completely”, “death of…”, and the other messages we keep getting.

We’re all shopping online. We prefer out-of-town retail parks. Highstreets need more experiential. You should go for hair and beauty, coffee shops and leisure – things you cannot buy by pressing buttons.

So why do we keep hearing quotes like the one the tv reporter chose to use…?

+ Do we say stuff we don’t mean when faced with a camera or survey.

Are we thinking shops but not the ones we end up with.

+ Or would we support them in enough numbers but the commercial #property market isn’t delivering that or can’t…?

When we’re setting out ‘next steps’ for the tackling vacancy-focused ‘place partnerships’ we urge locations working with #TheVacantShopsAcademy to set up, figuring out which retailers would add to the mix and trying to attract them is very much part of the story. It varies in time and between places, but is always there.

So DO we need more shops…?

I’d be interested to hear your thoughts…?