A guest blog by Iain Nicholson, founder of the Vacant Shops Academy
A headline objective for UK Shared Prosperity Fund is that:
‘By 2030, pride in place, such as people’s satisfaction with their town centre and engagement in local culture and community, will have risen in every area of the UK, with the gap between the top performing and other areas closing.’
…and its clear from placemaking resident consultations, visitor feedback, media reports and analyst commentary that empty shops do impact on ‘people’s satisfaction with their town centre’ and so ‘pride in place’.
Adding pressure on existing businesses
That’s because they look bad, attract anti-social behaviour, and increase the risk of your place featuring in a national ‘worst for empty shops’ list. They make things harder for existing businesses, increasing the chance that they’ll leave, and they can discourage inward investment by would-be new occupiers.
There are also negative direct financial impacts, including for the local council. Where the Council is the landlord, they reduce rental income, both from the vacancies and potentially if existing tenants seek reductions. They mean extra business rates bills if the Council is landlord for a non-listed property and reduced rate revenue overall where empties are in listed buildings. And there are other costs of maintaining and then re-filling the vacancy e.g., security, utilities, legal & letting agent fees.
Strengthening local culture and community
Empty shops are also literally a waste of space, and a missed opportunity to add to the retail, hospitality, leisure or services mix in your place. But – especially relevant to the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) guidance on engagement in local culture and community – they could be being used by local arts & crafts, culture, creative and community groups and organisations who’d love a space in their town or city centre but are frustrated by the barriers.
As part of People & Places’ review of monitoring pride in place changes sought through the UKSPF, a strong role is recognised for the mix of retail, hospitality and services and the impact of empty shops. The quality of the local business offer is deemed as saying as much for the emotional prosperity of a place as it does for its economic prosperity.
Practical help from the Vacant Shops Academy
As Associates of the People & Places Partnership, the Vacant Shops Academy, led by placemaking specialist Iain Nicholson, has developed the ‘audit, engage, encourage, promote’ approach to providing a measurable response to tackling empty shops issues.
It’s proven across a variety of projects in town and city centres and has been developed to be easily transferable and run by local council or BID teams (with the potential also for business groups and civic societies to support the ‘audit’ phase).
A key focus of the approach is that it is most effective when agents, landlords, businesses, communities and councils work together on it, so also playing to the emphasis on partnership building and working that is another strong theme in the UKSPF guidance.
As well as supporting a number of its themes, a tackling empty shops project also counts among the measures of success the Government has listed for interventions using the Fund. These include:
- Reduced vacancy rates
- Number and m2 of commercial buildings developed or improved
- Amount of rehabilitated land or premises
In addition, the Vacant Shops Academy approach is valuable for councils preparing for the Levelling Up legislation allowing for ‘Compulsory Rental Auctions’ which create a new power to help tackle this issue. To know when a unit reaches the one-year process trigger qualifying date and what its status is at the time will be easier to achieve if councils are, themselves, maintaining an ongoing ‘audit’ and regularly ‘engage’ with agents and landlords, businesses and their communities on this.
More information and support
The Academy offers three support options for delivering a measurable response to tackling empty shops:
- A virtual introduction to the approach with ongoing mentoring and peer support
- As (1) but with additional in-place support for the ‘audit’ phase
- A ‘capacity’ option for places without the in-house team to run it themselves.
Full details are available on request from iain@prbi.co.uk
Find out more about the Shared Prosperity Fund and the opportunities it provides for sharing prosperity across our towns and cities, including how to get hold of the free guide from People & Places on the Shared Prosperity Fund & its opportunities for communities, place & local business.
Gain insights into monitoring changes in ‘pride in place’ sought through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, including the contribution of the retail mix and empty shops.
