Case studies

Telford & Wrekin Council’s ‘Pride in our High Street’ scheme awards grants for small businesses looking to take on empty units in the town centre.

A scheme implemented to help overcome the barriers to individuals starting up a retail business through the provision of low-cost, low-risk space alongside dedicated business support and advice with the ultimate aim of assessing a business’s viability before moving on to trade independently.

The Pride Hill centre, which the council bought along with the Darwin and Riverside Centres in 2018, is set to undergo a large redevelopment project to repurpose the building from retail into a "leisure anchor" and cultural and civic hub which will require planning permission for change of use.

Sheffield City Council received over £3 million from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) in 2015 to develop a tech hub, as part of the tech north initiative. The grant was given to the council to administer, and through a competition the council chose a bid from the owners of Castle House, a former department store in the north of the city centre that had been vacant for over five years.

Plans have been submitted to replace the failed 1979 Agora shopping centre in Wolverton, north Milton Keynes, with a mixed-use scheme comprised of 115 new homes, shops and a community space.

As part of the council’s economic action plan, business owner support was given through a 50/50 grant scheme combined with local area environmental improvements, which could be used to improve vacant shop fronts to make them more attractive to tenants.

The Gresham Works project outlines how the creation of a flexible business workspace by a local authority within a private sector led development can lead to significant regeneration benefits.

The key lesson from this case study is the increased impact through working in partnership to tackle the challenge of vacancy, rather than in silos and with individual approaches.

Without any external funding, the Isle of Wight Council set up pop-up shops in Newport High Street in council owned and privately owned empty properties. This was part of the wider regeneration strategy for the Island.

The piloting of a new ‘Community Wealth Building Lease’ at the Grade II listed Bruce Grove Public Conveniences in Haringey is an innovative example of how councils can maximise the public benefits of their built assets through lease arrangements which build and retain wealth in the local community.