Solving the problem of vacant high street units - part 2: What cities and councils are doing about it

In the SECond of a two-part series, Natasha KERR, who has joined Remarkable City over the summer, looks at what cities and councils are doing to address the issue of vacancies on high streets.

As a finalist in the Mayor of London’s Resilience Fund in the Activating High Streets Challenge, Remarkable City has been working with Marvell Consulting, the Mayor of London, Nesta and the London Borough of Ealing to design a data tool to address this issue.  As part of this, we wanted to research the roots of the problem and consider which solutions are being put in place across the country.  In the first part of this series, which you can read here, we explored some of the reasons behind the issue and in the second instalment we focus on what councils and cities are doing to address the issue.

There have been many different ways councils and cities have been approaching solutions to this issue.

Derby - Make and Trade Zone 

In Derby, it has been reported that one in every three shops is empty which is damaging to the image of the high streets.  However, the empty spaces have provided an opportunity for the council and Derby’s Economic Recovery Task Force who requested £4.5 million in October 2020 to create a Make and Trade Zone in St James’s Street, Market Place and Iron Gate.  The Make and Trade Zone will focus on buying five units and letting these out as studios and workspaces. This follows from two previous projects of this kind in Hull and Margate.

Oxford & Camden - Meanwhile Uses

Meanwhile uses are a popular and effective way to utilise empty premises for temporary purposes and bring activity in the short term.  These temporary uses can vary from commercial uses, pop-up shops, community hubs or services, studios and workspaces and many more.  Though the occupancy is temporary, meanwhile spaces can have long-term benefits as leaving shops empty can be costly to councils and also make high streets look unattractive to shoppers, which can impact footfall and visitors to nearby businesses. Therefore, meanwhile uses can be really beneficial in bringing more visitors to the high streets.

In Oxfordshire, Oxford City Council has approved a £1.875 million budget to combat the issue of its empty shops in town centres.  The grant is part of a wider initiative, which is investing £8.4 million in reviving the economy following the Covid pandemic and could see 100 empty shops turned into pop-up shops which could provide up to 300 jobs. These pop-up shops would help new and small businesses to grow and fill the spaces for the short term.  This will improve the town centre offer and make Oxford a more attractive shopping destination, which will increase footfall and encourage further growth. The project is not limited to Oxford but will also benefit towns such as Abingdon, Bicester, Didcot, Wallingford and Witney however the grant is required to be spent by November of this year and the initiative will come to an end in early 2022.

Similar initiatives to the one taking place in Oxfordshire are taking place elsewhere such as in Camden where the council is working with the Midtown Improvement District to revitalise the local area by finding ways in which vacant premises can be repurposed for meanwhile uses.  These meanwhile uses can range from community and cultural uses to commercial uses and the council has consulted with residents about which types of businesses or community services would be the most beneficial for the area. 

Bath - Meanwhile Art, Studios and Workspace

Bath and North East Somerset Council redirected funds from events unable to go ahead due to COVID-19 and used grant funding to pay for 12 installations by local artists in the shop windows of vacant commercial units in the town centre of Bath.

With a total budget of £12,000, the project provided funding for artist commissions and was initially set up for a three-month period in the lead up to Christmas 2020.  Though this was set up as a short-term intervention, it had a longer-term aim which was to create interest in the properties and make the location, on Milsom Street, more attractive in general. An interesting impact of this was also the ‘culture of selfies’ which the site attracted.  This led to free publicity for the high street as people posted images of the shops on social media.

Subsequently, in early 2021, Bath and North East Somerset was awarded £500,000 from the West of England Combined Authority’s Recovery Fund to be used towards The Vacant Units Action Project.  This project again turned empty properties into pop-up shops and art projects in order to help the high streets recover from the pandemic and attract new businesses.  The project is running until the end of June so visit soon.

Exeter and Weston-super-Mare - Art in Shop Windows 

In Weston-super-Mare, a project with a similar goal called ‘The Weston-super-Shop Windows’ initiative was led by Weston Artspace and Culture Weston who commissioned a group of artists from the local area to create artworks to display in the windows of empty retail units.  The art was displayed for a month with the aim of providing a welcome back to high streets following Covid restrictions and using the vacant spaces to create something new and exciting for visitors to see.

In Exeter, a similar project was carried out as part of Exeter’s Covid-19 Recovery Plan Building Exeter Back Better. The project, called ‘Trade and Exchange’, saw two artists transform the windows of two empty shops in the city in order to highlight the significance of the cultural sector in Covid recovery while also making use of the empty spaces. The two artists were Emma Molony and Naomi Hart and their works and were on display until the end of May this year. 

Kingston town centre - Not My Beautiful House

Not My Beautiful House (NMBH) is a pop-up without precedent. Conceived and organised by Kingston University’s internal agency Studio KT1 and the Union of Kingston Students, NMBH showcases work by young creatives and makers. Since opening in May this year (the photo above shows the fit-out underway) it has welcomed 3,400 visitors through the door with an average spend of £22. They have received over 100 applications to sell from students, graduates and the community, and are stocking around 40 sellers which change very few weeks.

See https://www.notmybeautifulhouse.co.uk/ for full details. Keep it on the downlow but they are having a private view showing of "William Morris - Wallpaper Man" on 24th June from 6-8pm at the space at 19-23 Fife Road, Kingston KT1 1SB.

A Pre-Covid Example - Open Doors

The pilot scheme named ‘Open Doors’ was launched in Bradford, Fenton (Stoke-on-Trent), Kettering, Rochford and Slough in 2019 in partnership with the Meanwhile Foundation with the aim to match empty units with community groups needing work space.  Five sites were chosen for the project and the units were offered free of charge in order to encourage new groups and individuals to enter the high street and ‘bring positive social change’ while also making the most of the empty space and allowing it to be filled.

This scheme has been especially helpful for community groups in hosting events and activities and testing out their community- focused ideas. For example, the site in Kettering has been utilised by Legacy Supported Living, a service that supports young adults with learning disabilities and KCU (Kettering Community Unit), a drop in centre for the homeless, among others.

Next week Natasha will be looking at the recent announcements about the Town Deal Funding and what is being proposed across the towns that will be receiving funding.