The Vacant Shops Academy

“I love mushroom omelette.

🍄‍🟫 Oh look, someone’s given us mushrooms in the King’s Speech.

🥚 But wait… no eggs or milk…?

Guess we’ll just have to manage with fried mushrooms then.

☹️ I like that too but… Pity.”

👨‍🍳 With apologies for all those who tuned in for a tackling #highstreet vacancy thread and think they’ve found themselves in the middle of a cooking show…

…but I’m just trying to come up with words to describe how I feel about the ‘King’s Speech’ from a town and city centres perspective.

🙃 Don’t get me wrong, mention of a ‘#community right to buy’ is welcome but it seems odd to introduce solo, without the other elements of a tackling vacancy approach.

Now you could just dismiss me as empty shops guy grumpy cos only one of the 11 elements of our #TheVacantShopsAcademy #HighstreetsManifesto made it (go on then, say so…😉)

…but I honestly believe that #placemaking experience shows you need all those elements to make a real impact, not least the top one:

“Ask (and resource) every local authority to report on vacancy numbers twice a year, and work with #property agents, landlords, businesses, community and BID where there is one to overcome barriers to let…”

⏳ So I guess we wait now.

After all, even a trainee chef knows you can’t make an omelette without…

🤔 Or am I wrong. Please say.

Are you involved as a whole place in getting large former department stores back into use…?

⏳ How many of your town and city centres still have them vacant after 2, 3 or more years…?

Asking as it’s at the heart of the issue in a number of recent locations to sign up to #TheVacantShopsAcademy tackling #highstreet vacancy approach, and we’ve been looking carefully at options.

• Some will re-let to #retail;

🏢 Others repurposed to alternative uses including education or leisure;

• There’ll be those that are split up either to create a set of smaller ground floor units or separate off the uppers;

🪜 We’re seeing examples of ‘meanwhile… use’ like Sparks Bristol;

• And frustratingly there are those just sitting there, deteriorating, and bad for pride in place, inward investment and existing trade.

🤔 What I’m really keen to understand is WHO is involved. Is it just an agents-landlords thing where you are…?

Are the local council(s) or BID where there is one, existing businesses, your community, cultural groups and organisations taking an active part in the conversation…?

🗝️ I’m wondering if in the cases they are the re-let / re-purposing moves quicker or produces results that are more welcome for the place.

Would love to hear examples and experiences from #property and #placemaking colleagues. Do chip in…!

Nationally the headline ‘empty shops’ vacancy rate is around 14%.

📉 Could the new Levelling Up team set as a target to drop that into single figures…?

I believe so. We know how to do this.

🗝️ A starting point is for all the places with empty unit rates in the mid-high teens and especially those over 20% to get a tackling vacancy-focused ‘place partnership’ on the case.

It’s why our number one #HighstreetsManifesto suggestion was:

“Ask (and resource) every local authority to report on vacancy numbers twice a year, and work with agents, landlords, businesses, community and BID where there is one to overcome barriers to let…”

It’d be awesome to hear a new High Streets Minister commit to that.

☹️ Empty units do sooooo much harm to our town and city centres: on pride in place, reputation, footfall, investment and environment.

There’s a long list of reasons why they’re like that but also as many proven ways the place can start to fix it.

🎨 …and we’ve a much longer list now of go-to options to fill the spaces: arts & crafts, creative, culture, community, leisure, education, health & wellbeing alongside #retail, #hospitality & services plus office and resi (mostly) for upper floors.

We know that places can cut their #highstreet empty shops rate in half or better in 18 months. Some will drop it to churn level (under 5%).

🤳🏽 If vacancy is a troubling issue in your place, we’ll happily talk you thru it…!

Awesome week out & about #highstreet #placemaking.

💡 Four very different places so intriguing to see the common ground and how much the local teams could share.

Our #TheVacantShopsAcademy focus on reducing empty shops numbers is one of those – tho in each case this week it’s less about significant numbers of vacant units, and more that they have some tricky, often long-time empties to tackle.

🤔 That’s why we’ve introduced a new option – a version of our tackling vacancy approach for smaller locations or those with only a few but challenging units. It’s been good to start to pilot that in town and city centres and we very much hope it’ll be of interest to others with the same vacancy profile. Do get in touch if that’s you.

Another theme of the week is how much measures beyond those directly related to reducing vacancy and improving the mix of uses can contribute.

🎨 #streetart, sculptures, murals and the like;

• wayfinding, signage, street scene, furniture, bins & benches etc.;

🎡 events, markets and other activations;

• promotion of businesses and organisations you have already, those incoming, and the empty units as opportunities for others to join them.

💡 As ever we’ve learned a huge amount. Thanks Putney, Stratford-upon-Avon, Alcester, Southam…!

Do love to see a ‘Play Me’ piano when we’re out & about #highstreet #placemaking.

🚆 As we’re committed at #TheVacantShopsAcademy to travel by train wherever we can, it’s especially great to see them at rail stations.

This one is at Leamington Spa which, as the pictures show, is also one of the very well looked after stations we stop at.

🎹 I can also remember seeing pianos to play at Manchester Piccadilly & Dundee stations.

Who else has examples…? Do let us know.

🚏 It’s part of a regular theme of our tackling vacancy ‘next steps’ suggestions for places, that local teams should take themselves to all their town or city centre arrival points: rail station, bus, car parks etc., assess the welcome there, check that wayfinding and signage guides visitors to the routes we’d like them to take into the centre, and think about the first impression that journey gives them.

🫣 It’s amazing how often we find some or more parts of that aren’t great because, as locals, we know where we’re going and maybe aren’t paying 💯 attention to things visitors might notice along the way. Do try it if you haven’t…!

As a Ps: those who can will be able to tell that I have no clue how to play and am just sitting here for effect…! 😉

Excited to be heading out this week to visit the first of 8 new locations we’ll be delivering #TheVacantShopsAcademy tackling #highstreet vacancy approach.

8️⃣ They’re a mix of town centres with headline empty shops rates in the mid-teens and those with smaller numbers but some tricky long-time vacants the local teams are keen to get support in guiding back into play.

At the heart of our approach in all of them will be emphasising that it’s not “just an agents-landlords thing”.

🗝️ Places that are reducing empty unit numbers quickest and most sustainably are those that have a tackling vacancy-focused ‘place partnership’ with all the key stakeholders working together.

Businesses, community, council(s), BID where there is one, chamber, creative & cultural organisations, media where it’s up for being positive, all have a part to play alongside commercial #property agents, asset managers and landlords at the various stages of the process – ‘audit, engage, encourage, promote’.

📉 We’ll be drawing on experience from places that are already on the case and have seen a significant drop in their headline vacancy rate…

…and very much look forward to reporting from our new locations, to working with the teams there and supporting them to make a difference on this key #placemaking issue.

Two years on.

Picking up a journeys thread from our good #highstreet #placemaking friend Chris Wade FIPM at People, Places & Parking Process on the theme of sustainable travel.

Having committed to travelling by train to #TheVacantShopsAcademy locations wherever possible, it was interesting to see the App stats on the second anniversary of our first logged ‘out & about’…

• 111 trips
• 12,458 miles travelled by train;
• 1.5 tonnes of CO2 saved.

🌏 I’m not technical enough to know how valuable that is, but it’s a contribution, no…?

Chris is now doing some really good work with places on a range of active travel options and their impact, as part of the bigger story of how our town and city centres as a whole can do more on sustainability.

It’s really important insight, and something we’d encourage more places to explore.

🅿️ For our part we’re always talking to locations about arrival points – train, bus, car, bike whatever – to assess the welcome, the wayfinding & signage to the #retail and #hospitality centre, whether it takes visitors the route you’d most like them to choose, and the ‘first impressions’ they get on that journey.

It may all seem a distance from tackling vacancy but these can all be factors for sure.

🤔 It would be great to see any similar data sets you’re collecting…?

Learned a huge amount from an enjoyable and insightful #placemaking out & about in Gloucester.

A city with sooooo much happening in its different segments. Among them:

The pioneering University of Gloucestershire repurposing of the sizeable former Debenhams store, being closely watched by many places with similar buildings, and an important part of our wider tackling vacancy story of the role education and heath & wellbeing uses can play;

• Ongoing work to make its central square a vibrant and attractive hub, a place to visit, dwell and be entertained;

🏢 Careful and imaginative redevelopment to take the docks area forward (“the most inland port in the country”), making use of its attractive, heritage buildings and drawing in new businesses;

• Its Heritage Action Zone initiative caring for some of the city’s historic core;

🚈 A major rail station improvement project to follow on from the Transport Hub / bus station project;

And more…

🛍️ Real interesting conversations now about the role the #highstreet, #retail, #hospitality, and its shopping centres play in this story.

It’s a must-visit city if you’re this way…!

So it’s looking like the new powers to allow local authorities to ‘force’ an auction to rent long-time empty #highstreet units won’t be available ‘this summer’ as planned.

Was your place hoping to make use of High Street Rental Auctions…?

🤔 If you were, what now…?

Wait. Or press on with tackling vacancy work anyways…?

✍🏻 To recap: “Where a high street shop has been empty for over a year, High Street Rental Auctions would allow local leaders to step in and auction off a rental lease for up to 5 years. Auctions would take place with no reserve price, giving local businesses and community groups the opportunity to occupy space on the high street at a competitive market rate.”

⚖️ The timelines had been for legislation to make this practically possible to be in Parliament by now “with the first auctions expected to take place in September this year and the first new unit occupied and open to the public in October.”

With the election called that didn’t happen.

🎤 We know from previous posts that #property and #placemaking colleagues have very differing takes on this.

From our perspective at #TheVacantShopsAcademy we’d:
(a) always thought the policy would only be used for a handful of units – maybe 1 or 2 in 20 – anyway, and…

(b) that experience suggests, even without it, there are a range of ways a proactive tackling vacancy-focused ‘place partnership’ can get empties, even the tricky ones, back into play.

🗝️ So what is your plan now…?

Really happy to talk thru options with #BID and council teams, if that’d help…

We often talk in #TheVacantShopsAcademy ‘next steps’ narrative for the places we’re commissioned, and on here, about splitting vacant units as a route to getting them re-occupied.

🪜That can be dividing large ground floor, often ex-department store, units into smaller spaces to match demand from #indie #retail and #hospitality businesses. Or hiving off upper floors so they can go to separate uses.

🧩 But splitting up can be a key part of your strategy for the whole town or city centre too…

…and we’ve now suggested that for a number of places. Why…?

🤳🏽 It’s because they feel different, they’re a cluster of varying use types now so your target businesses and organisations aren’t the same, the opportunities presented by the available empties you have there point to alternative options, and you’ll ‘promote’ in each case to segments of your overall audience as customers and visitors.

We first used the idea working on a City Centre Action Plan for Oxford because even a relatively small central area like that actually divides into several differing ‘places’. We’ve seen the likes of Exeter and Chippenham start to present their places in quarters, and we’ve asked cities and towns we are working with to think similarly.

Might that work better for your place…? Would your tackling #highstreet vacancy approach be easier if you actually thought of it in two or three or more parts…?

🤔 It’d be interesting to hear what you think…