The Vacant Shops Academy

That long-stuck 14% national vacancy rate must surely start to come down now.

I say that based on two things:

+ Feedback from locations we’re working on tackling #highstreet vacancy with #TheVacantShopsAcademy, who are seeing their headline empty ‘shops’ rates fall, in some places very significantly (20-75%);

+ The government’s new High Street Rental Auctions (HSRA) power is now in play for local authorities to use and very detailed guidance on the ‘how’ has been published.

It’d be great to hear from council and BID colleagues who are preparing to make use of HSRA.

…and it’s this I’d argue raises hopes of some real positive momentum on tackling vacancy, nationally, because it asks councils (or partners, potentially BIDs, who run this with them) to take a number of steps in preparation, all of which tie in with the ‘audit, engage, encourage, promote’ approach we’re using and know works.

The guidance says: 

“We encourage the local authority to create a register for the purpose of identifying potential vacant properties.” (‘audit’);

“We want to see local authorities working proactively with landlords…” (‘engage’);

“Where a landlord is not proactive or has been unable to secure a tenant, local authorities should consider whether there is likely to be interest from prospective tenants were the premises available at the Minimum Standard and at a fair market rent.” (‘encourage’).

Having seen our approach make a positive impact on vacancy rates down the years and across a variety of locations, I believe that getting a ‘place partnership’ in play and just starting to take these steps will make a difference, even before places get to the auction stage itself.

So. Let’s do this…!

We’d love to share the approach with town and city centre teams who are starting out on the journey, and would be really happy to connect you with council and BID colleagues who are already working it in their places.

I always enjoy my visits here.

Heritage buildings and ventures, frequent reminders of its history, a variety of brands, long established indies, new arrivals, #retail, #hospitality, services, arts & crafts, creative, culture playing their part, waterways with a new leisure offer alongside, public space, innovating, people working hard to make it the best it can be. What did I miss…?

Banbury town centre is an important part of my own journey to #TheVacantShopsAcademy and taught us much that is in the ‘audit, engage, encourage, promote’ approach to tackling #highstreet empty ‘shops’ issues we’re now using to support local teams  in town and city centres around the country – 36 of them to date and counting.

We’re not involved here these days tho a number of good friends are.

So this is Christmas…

…and if I’m allowed one wish it’s that here, and wherever empty ‘shops’ and your mix of uses is a challenge, agents, landlords, businesses, community, cultural organisations, councils, chamber, BID and others identified locally get a positive, proactive ‘place partnership’ in play to maximise the benefit of their individual skills, effort, resources and powers, start to bring your vacancy numbers down, adjust the balance of types and switch the narrative.

The approach works, we know it does, and if vacancy is too high in your place or residents, businesses or members are worried about that mix, we’d love to talk you through it…

Let’s be really ambitious about the role schools and colleges can play in helping tackle vacancy in our town and city centres.

We should maybe agree at the outset that it’s challenging: limitations on staff time plus curriculum and exam commitments are going to need overcoming.

But…

It’s easy to see how young people can play a positive role in the wider #placemaking elements of our #TheVacantShopsAcademy projects:

+ Helping design and paint #streetart installations;

+ Gardening clubs taking on #highstreet planting initiatives;

+ Drawing on creative and performance skills to activate public spaces.

What would be amazing tho would be to go beyond that and see education organisations actually take on vacant units, maybe as community hubs for parent engagement or inter generational learning, as extra classrooms or as a showcase for arts & crafts, creative, hospitality, hairdressing and other talents.

Where it’s a college with design, engineering or trades skills courses they could also play a part in getting the empty units into shape.

It would also help your place tap into the huge resource that is the parents network and also of alumni.

What have I missed…?

As I say, it’s far from straightforward but would love to hear examples…

Retail is very much still part of the #highstreet mix. 

Shops are typically top of or at least prominent on any list of what residents say they want from their town or city centre when asked. 

A number of brands have extensive requirements lists and new opening programmes to add to their current holdings.

So it was a relief to read the following in the recent House of Lords Built Environment Committee report on this issue:

“Retail will always remain a vital component of the high street but local communities are increasingly seeking out restaurants and leisure activities as well as wanting to see more public services in their town centres.”

“…will always remain a vital component of…”

It feels more nuanced and thus practical than the “forget retail”, “change completely”, “death of…” messaging we’ve had before, and it certainly fits better with what we’re seeing in a range of places with #TheVacantShopsAcademy.

That’s not to say the same applies equally everywhere. For many of the locations we’re working on tackling vacancy, arts & crafts, creative, cultural, community, history & heritage, leisure, education, health, health & wellbeing have a significant, maybe bigger, role as potential targets to fill those empties.

The crucial thing is that the exact balance will vary by location and that’s why everywhere that has empty units as an issue needs a tackling vacancy-focused ‘place partnership’ on the case, to work out where the line is drawn for them.

We’re always very happy to talk to places about what that approach looks like and how to deploy it in your town or city centre. Do ask…!

Which words do you most often see or hear first if someone is just about to write or say #highstreet landlord. 

Greedy. Absentee. Not interested…?

How about we replace those with…

Struggling. Anxious. Trying (the making a big effort sort, not the frustrating).

⚖️ Understanding the perspectives of each of its stakeholders is a crucial role of the tackling vacancy-focused ‘place partnership’ that’s always at the heart of our ‘next steps’ approach for #TheVacantShopsAcademy locations…

…and explaining the long list of reasons why a landlord might not be keen on a particular letting (or indeed any one) is a big part of that.

Here’s just some of them:

+ It may not work with their loans / leverage agreements;

+ They may have other aspirations for the #property;

+ It may be a long term investment;

+ The cost to let may be prohibitive;

+ Their income target may be being met by other e.g. upstairs tenants in the building;

+ A deal here may negatively impact agreements with other tenants in the same town / city;

+ The building is listed so they pay no business rates when it’s empty thus reducing their incentive to let;

+ They may have had bad experiences with tenants previously…;

+ …or a tenant that’s left but is still paying rent on an unexpired lease.

And there are other factors we could add, each equally sensible if you look at them from the landlord’s perspective.

So that’s another part of the rationale for a positive, proactive ‘place partnership’. Where one or more of the above is a barrier to getting the empty unit back in play another stakeholder (or two) can step up and help find a way.

You could try the “surely it’s better to…” argument or wield some kind of regulatory stick, but as places that have tried that find, it’s no guarantee to get the job done.

It’s why we encourage the town and city centre teams we’re supporting on tackling vacancy to go for the working together approach: visit the units, see what the barriers to let are, understand the landlord’s circumstances and perspective, and explore what you can do to help. You may still fail, but our experience is that you’ve a greater chance of success.

Or am I wrong…?

Would a National Early Vacancy Insurance Scheme work…?

I’m hoping it’s something #legal and #property colleagues might have some thoughts on.

The idea is to help us overcome two especially tricky kinds of empty unit:

+ Those where the tenant has left with time still in their lease and so continues to pay rent (and often rates etc too) until term is reached, a surrender is agreed or a new tenant takes over (on assignment). Those working on tackling #highstreet vacancy know these outcomes are difficult and as a result rarely achieved, and the place often ends up with a long-time empty, sometimes with the old branding still up as a grim reminder of what it’s lost;

+ Similarly, where the tenant goes into administration and the landlord and place have to wait for that all to work its slow way through the system.

So – on behalf of our town and city centres and neighbour businesses – we need a way to speed these through. Hence my insurance idea we’ll call NEVIS for short.

This is what I’m thinking and would really appreciate it if technical expert colleagues could chip in…

On signing the lease a tenant would pay into an insurance policy a sum that would be added to a national fund. If they left early for either of the above reasons the fund would pay out to cover any remaining rent to the landlord plus an extra amount so the place could get the frontage looking the best it can (signage taken down, paint refresh etc).

I can see a number of flaws and it’d need conditions and timescales, but hopefully it’s a conversation starter we can build on.

I’d love to hear your thoughts…

So the 2024 #highstreet lettings season is pretty well done, time to reflect on how your town and city centre did on reducing empty units.

Though there’ll still be more in the pipeline for some places, it is typically a point in the calendar when interest in taking on space for a new shop or venue winds down…

…an opportunity to consider how your tackling vacancy-focused ‘place partnership’ got on, both in terms of bringing the headline rate down but also improving the mix of use types and in making the units that cannot be let yet look the best they can ‘meanwhile…’.

And if your vacancy numbers remain in the mid / high teens or are over 20% or worse, it’s the ideal opportunity to get the local team you need in place to prioritise this crucial metric in 2025.

From #TheVacantShopsAcademy perspective it’s been a heartening run with the number of places we’ve been commissioned to support through our ‘audit, engage, encourage, promote’ approach rising to 35, and positive reports on the difference those local teams have made and plan to going forward.

If vacancy numbers are too high in your town or city centre, you have a small number of tricky, long-time empties that the commercial #property market is struggling to shift, or residents and businesses are concerned about a change in the balance of uses you have, we’d love to talk…

We should use poetry more often to help tackle #highstreet vacancy.

It’s an idea sparked during an insightful and enjoyable visit with #TheVacantShopsAcademy to Grimsby town centre.

The poem in the lead picture is one of the locally-focused features of window vinyls and other place-based messaging installations being used here.

It made us reflect on all the different approaches to vacant unit window vinyls we see across our varying commissions. From simply posting the #property agent’s name and lettings details, through those drawing on colourful imagery or an idea of what the unit could become, to a set that reflects the location – its history, #heritage, people and stories.

The poem seemed to add something extra that might help encourage would-be occupiers to invest here.

What do you think…?

Do you have examples in your place of poetry or storytelling being used in this way…?

It’d be great to hear.

What does your place look like after dark. Are your historic buildings, waterways, art installations and other features highlighted. Is your town or city centre worth a late visit just to see them, and what’s its offer…?

In particular, from our #TheVacantShopsAcademy tackling #highstreet vacancy perspective, is that a route to explore for reducing the number of empty units you have.

An important part of this is of course residential, whether or not people are living here and if you’re making the most use of upper floors.

It’ll be about the night time economy and safety and travel home options too.

We’ve also had a great #placemaking conversation on getting vacancy down about uses that might have a day time and an evening offer combined. Examples might be…

+ butchers that becomes a restaurant in the evening;

+ a barbers with a bar;

+ bookshops that host book clubs, or author events or homework classes after what would normally be closing time;

+ art galleries or makers collective shops that host evening workshops;

You’ll have great examples in your own places to add.

So what’s your place like after dark, and how much is that a factor in your ‘place partnership’ work to get those empties back into play. It’d be great to hear…

The thought was sparked by an enjoyable and insightful visit to Grimsby (of which more in future posts) a town centre with, as you can see from the image set, lots to like on an evening stroll.