Case studies

Basildon Council have formally adopted a Town Centre Regeneration Strategy which sets out plans for the future of the new town’s retail core.

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.

Cheshire East has had varied outcomes developing meanwhile uses. It has found that they works better if the council facilitates discussions with landlords to develop temporary uses.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.