The Vacant Shops Academy

Encouraging update this week from one of the early adopters for the new High Street Rental Auctions power for local councils.

I get that not everyone is a fan and that #property colleagues in particular have been critical (on a scale of comments ranging between “unworkable” and “unnecessary”).

From our tackling #highstreet vacancy perspective tho, we’ve always seen this as a valuable extra tool in the toolkit, but something that’s there as a last resort if the ‘place partnership’ approach doesn’t cut it in one or two cases.

But we hoped it would do two things:

• + encourage more town and city centres to get on the case and believe reducing their number of empty units and improving the mix of uses is something they can make a difference on (which it is);
• + demonstrate that by engaging with agents and landlords, places can make progress on helping get vacants back in play without actually needing to trigger the auction itself.

That was the early feedback from Lichfield as they updated council and other colleagues on a very well attended MHCLG webinar on Rental Auctions this week.

Early days, small sample and much more to come from the other authorities working on this, but still good to hear.

As our recently updated guide to tackling vacancy sets out, there can be a number of reasons why landlords aren’t progressing empty units as quickly as the place would like. Many of them are sound from their commercial, financial perspective – just not what the location wants to hear. Reaching out to them and setting out the potential for other stakeholders to help, can for sure help get the job done.

It’d be great to hear from other early adopter locations or #placemaking colleagues who’ve recently started a tackling vacancy journey…

And if you’d like a copy of the guide do please shout…!

Here’s something I’d love to get a take on from #highstreet #property colleagues, especially those working on acquisitions and new location requirements lists.

It’s a timing question.

Maybe one Ellen Peters and fellow Property Managers Association members can help with, bringing together as it does in-house property professionals for major #retail brands.

When you’re making a decision on whether to open up in a place are you taking into account demographics, footfall, spend data and the like from its past, from now or are you making a calculation looking ahead.

It’s a question sparked by having been in recent weeks and months in town and city centres that are what you might call “in transition”. Where maybe vacancy has been on the higher side but there’s a ‘place partnership’ on the case, those numbers are coming down or are about to, and there’s development, investment – aimed at bringing in new residential, office, health services, cultural uses etc – that will boost footfall and dwell time and so transform those key metrics you rely on.

So what’s your strategy…? Be an early adopter, take the opportunity when maybe rents are lower and the best units are available, or wait.

I know members of The Academy Network which brings together council and BID officers we’re working with on tackling vacancy would be interested to hear… 

The showcase screen in its central Keel Square suggests there’s plenty of words to choose from for Sunderland.

I’m going with “change” because sooooo much has since my visit 18 months back, with much more in the pipeline.

It’s exciting to see a city centre with such a lot happening and especially so – believing strongly in ‘place partnership’ working as we do – to talk through with #placemaking colleagues here how that approach is strengthening.

Even on a short walk-see there’s change to witness…

• + The exciting Culture House multi-purpose venue rising from the ground;
• + Scaffolding off two of the central area’s landmark buildings after careful restoration;
• + New #hospitality additions to the mix in Keel Square with another on the way;
• + Significant progress on the Riverside development which is creating a dynamic, carbon-neutral urban quarter;
• + A stunning new addition to the city’s #streetart collection which is part of an ongoing programme of creative public realm projects;
• …and more besides, with much else set to folllow in the months ahead.

From a pure tackling #highstreet vacancy perspective this is encouraging progress, as it means office, commercial, residential, health services and cultural development that helps deliver the increased footfall and dwell time that is so important to would-be new #retail occupiers.

And, as we’ll reflect in a future post, there are a variety of units, including a number in attractive, intriguing buildings, for both brand and independent shops to go for.

It’s for sure a city that’s very well worth a visit…!

Two #highstreet tackling vacancy-related policy changes emerge in a week.

Both described by specialists in that area of our work as “unexpected”.

One, around “community right to buy assets of community value”…

…the other a possible ban on upward-only rent reviews in commercial leases. To be fair words used to describe this one have sometimes, so far, been – let’s say – less charitable.

There’s a way to go until implementation for both before they join the other recent initiative out there – High Street Rental Auctions – so we’ll need wait to see the detail…

But in their own way each of the three are targeted at what are seen as potential barriers to getting empty units back into play and / or the issue around what uses empty units end up being taken on by, so could, should help…?

So what’s next…?

If you’re working as a ‘place partnership’ on trying to reduce the number of empty units or improving the mix of use types in your town or city centre, what would you ask for.

As those who’ve read the ‘manifesto’ we drafted around election time, we’ve a list, headed by this:

“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…”

So over to you #property and #place making colleagues. What’s your number one policy or regulation change ask…?

So half way through the 2025 lettings season, how is your town or city centre faring.

Do you have national #retail or #hospitality brands taking on empty units.

Are there new independents setting up.

Or are you seeing use types from our alternative / additional go-to list: arts & crafts, creative, culture, community, history & heritage, leisure, education, health and health & wellbeing making use of an opportunity to secure a #highstreet space.

It’d be great to get your updates…

…especially if you have a tackling vacancy-focused ‘place partnership’ on the case and it’s made a positive impact on some of the empty units you had.

We’ve been having some really interesting conversations with locations we’re supporting on ways to help move their trickier long-time vacants forward so it’d be good to swap notes.

Writing this just back from one of those places, Southend, where we saw a mix of recent lettings, a number of vacant buildings with works underway and positive signs of activity on some of the other empties…

A day that started getting an update on a very technical new tackling #highstreet vacancy power ended in a room brimming with Positives ideas…

…and both are crucial to giving us the varied and vibrant town and city centres we love to see.

Thanks to Ojay McDonald and Karen Shields at the Association of Town & City Management I was able to listen in as MHCLG’s Vicki Bidwell updated on the progress being made by early adopters of the new High Street Rental Auctions power. If you’ve missed that, it’s essentially a way for councils to get long-empty units up for rent to new occupiers.

The process does take some setting up so we’ve not yet seen any get to auction stage. But for me that’s not the point. What we are seeing is council teams connecting with #property owners. Landlords and agents reaching out. Empty units being put on the market for sale or to let or done up, and some of them getting new tenants.

In other words what’s effectively the ‘place partnership’ approach we’d like every location where vacancy is an issue to have in play.

Meantime, while we wait for policy and regulatory change to fully kick in – and I’d love to see us go quicker – our places continue to draw on the ideas, experience and expertise of place leaders and managers, imagining, collaborating, getting stuff done.

The first launch event of Laura Harris’s brilliant #HighStreetPositives campaign was a shining illustration of that.

Complex power. Positives energy. Very different approaches. Both getting us there…!

So here’s a tricky balancing act…

…and (yet) another reason why having a positive, proactive, tackling #highstreet vacancy-focused ‘place partnership’ can be a huge help in reducing empty unit numbers and importantly too, improving the mix of use types your town or city centre has.

The thought was sparked by seeing a commercial agent posting enthusiastically that they’d let a unit having had a number of offers and reached agreement with the successful occupant for more than the advertised rent.

From the agent perspective that’s a deal done. Fee earned. The landlord has a new tenant and a rent income above what they’d planned. All good. And the place has one fewer vacant unit.

So why the question…?

You might read what follows and think I’m asking too much, but here goes anyways…

How was the winner chosen. Purely on highest rent offer or was some account taken of what might suit the place best;

Who is the occupier. If presented with the full list of use types, might its residents and existing businesses have chosen differently;

It’s been settled for an increased rent which because of the way the system works might have a knock-on effect on existing businesses at lease renewal;

And what happened to the other interested parties. Is someone picking those up and trying to match them to the remaining empty units in that town or city centre…?

I’ve not said where this case occurred and haven’t asked any of those questions. It may well be the letting will be a great add to its mix.

My point is that having a ‘place partnership’ with agents, landlords, businesses, community, cultural organisations, council(s), chamber and BID if you have one working together on this might give you an outcome that better suits the place, its residents and existing businesses with bigger picture and / or longer term benefits for the agent or landlord too.

As I’m writing I can hear #property sector colleagues disagreeing, but it feels right to have the debate…

It’s 3 years this week since our first out & about on a tackling vacancy commission for The Vacant Shops Academy.

Thanks Cheltenham…!

In the time since we’ve taken our ‘audit, engage, encourage, promote’ approach to 36 locations, seen some great places, worked with brilliant place leaders and managers and learned a huge amount.

Thank you to everyone – agents, landlords, businesses, communities, cultural organisations, council colleagues, chamber and BID teams and many more.

We’ve started to see a number of those places take their headline vacancy rate down, some of them by significant chunks, and improve their mix of uses.

We’re seeing that having a ‘place partnership’ in play is fundamental and understanding more about how the other key elements: tackling vacancy grant or loan schemes, #popup shop or ‘meanwhile… use’ projects, and the rest make their impact.

That there’s a bigger role for arts & crafts, creative, cultural, community, history & heritage, leisure, education, health and health & wellbeing uses alongside #retail, #hospitality & services is ever clearer, and as more places facilitate and support examples that will only strengthen.

We’ve now the confidence to say to places up front that if they take on the approach they can aim to halve their headline vacancy rate in 18 months and improve that mix of uses. Some will do it faster.

Why wouldn’t you give it a try…?

If you’re on a tackling #highstreet vacancy journey in your town or city centre or are keen to, it would be great to hear from you.

We’ve just updated our guide and if you’d like a copy do please shout…

“…work together, deploy all the projects that apply to your place, not just one or two elements, and you will have an effective strategy to reduce vacancy and improve the local mix of uses.”

Updating our guide to tackling #highstreet vacancy and a chance to reflect on what’s changed in the year since we first drafted it.

If you’d like a copy do please shout.

Reading about and hearing from agents, landlords and town or city management teams grappling solo with the challenges around getting empty units back into play or even just to look better has strengthened our already solid belief in the importance of having a positive, proactive ‘place partnership’ on the case.

But we’ve also seen more examples of arts & crafts, creative, culture, community, history & heritage, leisure, education, health and health & wellbeing uses taking on space and making a positive difference. There is, we’d argue, much more to come from those ‘alternative’ or additional uses.

The third big thing has been Aberdeen – led by Aberdeen Inspired – getting its Union Street Upper Floors Project underway so extending its own successful partnership approach to another significant challenge, and even at this early stage looking to have developed a way forward that every place with this an issue can deploy.

If your place has a mid / high teens or over 20 per cent headline vacancy rate we’d love to explore how you can join the local teams already seeing theirs reduced…

Windows.

No. Not the PC operating systems thing. I’m the least technical person you know.

I mean the #highstreet shop front and upper floors type and why they can be important to tackling town and city centre vacancy.

Here’s how.

Whether that empty unit you’d like to let has enough window to be good for #retail…

Or as is often the case with ex-banks, there’s too much brick to make the building good for shops and we need think about other uses.

Are the windows attractive in style or shape and actually present as an asset to a new occupier.

And of course when they’re empty, there’s the negative impact on the look of your place if the glass is cracked or broken or littered with posters, and the opportunity to do something creative with vinyls or window-dressing to make them look better and increase your letting chances.

If you’re thinking about getting un- and under-used upper floors back into play – as we’re focusing on in an innovative project with Aberdeen Inspired along Union Street there – the windows can tell you much too.

Look up and get a sense of whether there’s a business or residential use on those floors or are there tell-tale signs of a vacancy with foliage growing out of them;

Are the windows heritage style and potentially an additional cost to get them right for a different use;

Will there be extra noise or heat insulation needed;

Is there a potential issue of being overlooked out of a taller neighbour property;

And back on the ground floor if you can only get upstairs currently via the shop, can you afford to take out some window frontage to create that crucial separate access…?

Just some examples but an illustration of why, tho we talk about location, size, condition, rent and rates as key factors in the chances of moving our empties forward, we maybe need think more about those windows.