Ashfield District Council is working to reduce the number of vacant shops in Sutton town centre and Stanton Hill High Street.
High Street Rental Auctions (HSRA) are a new power that the Council adopted in September last year, requiring landlords of persistently empty shops or business units to rent them out to new tenants through an auction process.
Sutton town centre has a vacancy rate of 13.2%, and Stanton Hill High Street has a vacancy rate of 13.9%. All these long-term vacant properties are owned by private landlords. Since adopting the powers last year, the Council has been working to find and contact all the landlords, and conversations have started. As a result, some landlords are now actively searching for new tenants, whilst others have decided to sell their empty properties.
Alongside the HSRA, the Council has introduced a shopfront grant for Sutton Town Centre and Stanton Hill to encourage landlords to improve the façades and interiors of both empty and occupied properties. Alongside the Council grant, the Government has just announced a £10 million fund to help councils bring vacant shops back into use faster. Both pots of money could help landlords to fill their premises before the HSRA powers are used as a last resort.
The next steps in the HSRA scheme will be formally contacting the landlords who have yet to engage with the Council and agreeing a plan of action for bringing the properties back into use.
Cllr Matthew Relf, Executive Member for Growth, Regeneration and Local Planning, said:
“The High Street Rental Auctions are a fantastic new power to add to our toolkit for improving our town centres. Long-term empty commercial properties on our high streets have been a blight for many years, with some landlords being unrealistic in their rent expectations in the challenging retail environment and not undertaking essential maintenance to keep their properties attractive. These powers force the hand of landlords and allow new entrants onto the high street.
“We will, of course, continue to seek to work productively with landlords to support them in getting new tenants in, but for those landlords who are disengaged or unrealistic in their expectations, these powers will be used to force their hand. We expect this approach to also assist existing businesses with problematic landlords when it comes to rent reviews.
“The Council has a duty to shape the towns and villages in Ashfield. Whilst we can’t choose which businesses open, we can help re-energise our town centres. Increasing the occupancy of these vacant units will go a long way towards bringing life back into the town centres and high streets, improving footfall and spending.”
Once the process is underway in Sutton and Stanton Hill, the HSRA scheme could be rolled out across Hucknall and Kirkby town centres.
To be eligible for an auction, a property must be in the designated area, be vacant for at least one year or for 366 days non-continuously in the past two years, and be suitable for use as a shop, café, office, entertainment venue or community space.