Are flaws in the business rates reliefs system contributing to #highstreet units staying vacant longer than needs be…?

What changes would #placemaking and #property colleagues like to see based on your learning on the ground…?

🤔 The government has a consultation underway called “Business Rates Avoidance and Evasion”, based on this statement:

“…there is a small minority who seek to exploit the business rates system, either through false reporting, or through contrived means which circumvent the spirit and intention of the law.”

📦 Has the consultation captured all the potential workarounds you’ve seen…?

🧹 Is there a risk of sweeping some valuable elements of the reliefs and exemptions away, in the determination to stop mis-uses…?

Thoughts…?

Thought it might be of interest to share a digest of some of the emails we’ve had from #highstreet #property agents in the last week.

“Hi Iain we sold the property to an owner occupier a few months ago and they opened their new shop last week.”

“17 is now let, a new Tenant has moved in.”
 
“5/7 is also let.”

“This unit is presently vacant and available to let but we have had a number of viewings recently and so hopefully it will not be for too much longer.”

As ever this is not to deny it’s challenging out there. It is. Especially in some locations.

But we’re in another period where national brands in difficulty are dominating the headlines and potentially creating the impression among readers, listeners and viewers that the vacancy news in our town and city centres is only going one way.

A long-time issue for us is that new openings – even by chain concerns – tend to be on a one-by-one basis. Lettings to #indie #retail, #hospitality or services businesses are the same, so neither make media impact. Requirement lists of target towns for national brands barely ever make the mainstream news.

It’s why we believe it’s sooooo important that places – council(s) and BIDs where there is one, civic societies, chambers of commerce and others – take charge of their vacancy numbers and promote new arrivals.

It may be that you don’t have any of the businesses making the headlines in your place. Even if you do and they close that may be outnumbered by new openings, including the unit they were in being snapped up quickly by another brand.

‘audit, engage, encourage, promote’. The picture you get may be very different…!

As promised, here’s an early data output from one of the locations we’re running ‘audit, engage’ as part of a tackling empty #highstreet shops issues project which, hopefully, you’ll find is food for thought…

Our town centre walk-see there in the spring showed 29 visibly vacant units. But checking in with #property agents and landlords produced – not for the first time in our #TheVacantShopsAcademy work – a very different picture.

• Ten of the units are now let. Ten…!
• Another two are under offer.
• A further four are not proactively being marketed currently because of refurbishment works.

True, units in the last two categories might come back onto the market. But still, the number of ‘empty & available’ units is HALF, maybe even a third of the headline vacancy rate. A huge difference in terms of deciding ‘next steps’ policy.

This is the second location in which we’ve reported a significant gap between the two numbers, and again illustrates why we’re so keen for places – whether that be council(s) and / or BID where there is one – to take charge of their vacancy numbers, and to work with agents, landlords, businesses and their community to help overcome barriers to getting empty units back into use.

You can make a difference. And the risk of taking policy or project initiatives without knowing the backstory of these units is that you might do the wrong thing – including taking out commercial space when actually you could use more…!

We’re always happy to talk places thru our ‘audit, engage, encourage, promote’ approach if vacancy is an issue for you…?

So here’s some #highstreet #property stories you may not be seeing in the headlines…?

• National #retail brands finding it difficult to secure new stores because of limited options in target towns and city centres;
• Commercial agents running a bidding process on properties because of the level of interest;
• The competitive rush we’re seeing to snap up the units left behind by departing mid-sized chains;
• Landlords building new small units to meet demand;
• Independent #hospitality business owners scoping towns to expand into, based on the success of their first or second.

As ever none of this is to deny that it’s challenging in our town and city centres. We’re still losing businesses that would stay if we were in a stronger situation, and we for sure need a range of policy adjustments from government.

But in their different ways these ‘audit, engage’ backstories suggest the vacancy picture is more complex than saying ‘shops’ are empty because no-one wants them.

And that’s before we get onto the units it’s assumed are vacant due to lack of interest, but are actually staying that way longer than needs be because of what we call ‘supply-side’ factors. The ones we could let if we find ways to overcome the barriers…

Maybe worth remembering when next you read or have shared on your timeline another gloomster ‘death of the high street’ narrative…?

“Report confirms stats on death of the high street”, ran the headline.

One of a frustrating timelines-filling set this week.

Thing is tho the stats it set out do nothing of the sort…!

We’ve been trying to unravel from quite sparse detail on the methodology what they do tell us.

We think that the given figure of 6,000 ‘#retail outlets’ lost in 5 years is the net number of closures across 650 ‘shopping locations’.

The assumption from reading it (and maybe of those sharing) is that this is about shops and the #highstreet.

But is it…? If it’s actually about ‘shopping locations’ that includes retail parks and shopping centres so the number of high streets included is smaller. There’s therefore a chance that your town centre isn’t covered at all. What’s more, the closures are not all what you and I call shops. Places that sell stuff. If they’re ‘outlets in retail locations’ that might have been garages or salons or tattoo parlours or bookies or banks…?

Either way, assuming we’ve understood the data and got the maths right: 6000 closures across 650 locations in 5 years is an average of 2 closures per place per year.

Headline: “Two city centre shops closed this year.” I don’t think so.

But there’s another thing from #TheVacantShopsAcademy work on tackling empty shops issues: the method behind these stats. If you count closures by visiting a town and noting the visibly empty units at that time, you might well include some that aren’t vacant at all.

One of the 19 locations we’ve audited had 27 visibly ‘vacant’ units. But when we ‘engage’ with agents to check the status of those empties and take off any that are let or near to, the figure came down…

…to 9: ONE THIRD of the headline number. A huge difference. We’ll shortly publish data for another town and expect that’ll show similar.

None of this is to say things aren’t still challenging. They are, in some places especially so.

But fixing them requires inward investment and confidence so talking down our places doesn’t help.

Is it time to rest the gloomster strategy in favour of something more positive. Call for the changes we need by all means, but as an argument for building on strengths and success.

It’s surely worth a try.

More than half the ‘next steps’ narrative suggestions in our #TheVacantShopsAcademy reports for places we’re supporting to tackle vacancy are less directly about the empties themselves and more around wider #highstreet #placemaking.

Very often that’s included ways to bring more arts & crafts, creative, culture and community into the town or city centre, including popupshop / meanwhile.. use and, importantly, facilitating longer term stays.

For places that have little or none, we’re also encouraging them to look at the increasingly strong set of examples around the country of stunning #streetart.

Why…? Well take the first example in this set from New Brighton, Wirral we saw out & about with Institute of Place Management team mates. It’s on the gable end of a row of terraced houses you’d otherwise have walked past especially on a wet Wednesday. Instead we stopped and talked about its ‘why and how’ and photographed it and shared it across social media, and for sure someone who hadn’t planned to will now visit the town to see it.

But it’s more than that. It would’ve taken imagination and creativity, and permissions and positive, inclusive partnership working and funding and more. All among the things that we need to make our places the best they can be.

It might not be murals in your case, tho I 💯 think you might well go that route, but if you’ve all the above elements working in your place it will be stronger, and likely you’ll be reducing vacancy if that’s an issue for you too…!

Thanks to Daniel Davies, Jayne Casey and friends for taking the time to show us round and talk thru your awesome, inspiring, ongoing story…!

Encouraging return visit to Chepstow to check in on the units that looked to be vacant in our ‘audit’ walk-see there earlier in the year, and build on the insights from #property agents in the ‘engage’ phase.

A number of them already have new #retail or #hospitality occupiers in business – a mix of indie and national brands – and there look to be a handful more with planning, licensing or fit out work underway.

As a result of today we’ll list one or two others for further checks before producing the ‘target list’ of those that remain empty & available, and describing any barriers to re-letting that the place may be able to help overcome.

The overall sense tho, now starting to be backed up by the data, is that here’s another #highstreet location where the original headline vacancy data changes – sometimes significantly – when you check for current status and backstory…

…and a further case study to illustrate why we believe in only setting #placemaking policy and project plans, nationally and for your own place, when you’ve been through this process. If not, you run the risk of going on the basis of an inaccurate picture.

Do you know how many of the visibly vacant units in your place are empty AND available…?

There’s much conversation when we get to the 3rd – ‘encourage’ – phase of our approach to tackling empty shops issues, about the different types of businesses and organisations we might try attract as a place to fill vacant units.

My summary list typically features: arts & crafts, culture, creative, community, leisure, education, health & wellbeing to go alongside the more traditional #retail, #hospitality & services. Yours may add others…?

So thought it’d be interesting to focus my just-visiting out & about in Bicester and Banbury on some examples.

It’d be great to hear others from #property and #placemaking colleagues…!

Can existing #retail and #hospitality businesses play a part in helping their #highstreet place tackle vacancy…?

It was a question I was asked at a meeting of business owners and managers in the very lovely town of Henley-on-Thames.

And the answer is 100% yes they can.

This is one of the towns with only a few vacant units tho admittedly some of them may be tricky being ex-banks in large heritage buildings.

But still…

The first way is direct. Thinking thru what business types would add to the existing mix and working with the town centre manager to help ‘encourage’ those here.

But we focused the conversation on two other things.

• ‘Promote’. Being the very best they can be on social media as individual businesses and by sharing, liking etc each other’s posts to create a collective town buzz across platforms.
• …and a range of #placemaking things around having the town centre ‘look’ amazing. One small example I gave was starting their next meet at the rail station then key car parks, and making the journey in as a visitor / customer, identifying anything that’s not right and helping improve that.

Both can help boost footfall, extend dwell-time, create new ambassadors for the place, and attract inward investment. And all of those can impact on vacancy…!

Thanks to Town Centre Manager, Paul Carey, for the invite and all those there for their insights.

What positives do you take away from a #highstreet #placemaking visit to one of our town or city centres…?

Street art, the floral displays, the attractive buildings, its natural and heritage attractions, a strong mix of #indie #retail, #hospitality and services businesses, high profile national brand additions, the partnership working…?

Much to choose from on an out & about in Poole town centre as the images show – and I’ve only chosen 5 of many…!

Thanks to Jacqui Rock at Poole BID for the invite and insights.