Introduction
Shopping centres are often the key component for many town centres, they typically dominate the landscape in terms of size, location, facilities and offer. As a result of development trends over the second half of the last century, particularly the last quarter, many towns contained covered shopping centres playing host to the leading and biggest high street names.
Over the last 20 years there has been a steady and increasing trend in the demise of this once dominant form of town centre retailing. Wider economic, technology, social, and property trends have all combined to result in major change. In some instances, the significant decline in occupancy, collapse of once dominant names and even the collapse of landlords and property owners / developers. The term ‘repurposing’ has become synonymous with town centres and their recovery. This has resulted in an increasing ownership of shopping centres by councils, in part as their role as the ‘guardians of place’.
The LGA is eager to identify how it can assist councils to decide on whether to / how to / when to acquire its shopping centres, and therefore commissioned this study to identify best practice lessons that can be used to aid councils in their decision making and future involvement.
Background and context
Recent challenges faced by town centres
It’s fair to say that for some time now, since the early Nineties, when supermarkets started developing bigger superstores in out-of-town locations, that town and city centres have been under threat. This threat has increased over the years, being compounded by the development of out-of-town bulky goods retail parks in the early nineties, many of which evolved into shopping parks.
The arrival of large format (10,000 sqm. plus) stores with extensive non-food ranges further applied pressure on town centres through influencing shopper behaviours, by selling clothes, jewellery, bedding, garden equipment, TVs, fridges, small electrical items, DVDs, consoles and games and so on. In effect, mini and alternative town centres, with extensive free parking, extended opening and clean environments.
A further impact on many town centres has been the growth in out of town ‘fashion parks’ where former bulky goods stores have become general comparison goods stores.
In more recent years, the deep discounters such as TK Maxx, Wilko, B&M Bargains, and The Range all continue to draw shoppers away from town centres from stand-alone or out of town locations.
The rise of multi-channel online retailers and dedicated specialists attracts ever increasing expenditure that previously used to be spent in town centres.
On top of all of that, the pandemic literally closed town centres over several waves, and encouraged shoppers in their droves online, and the current war in Ukraine is forcing up energy costs and food costs, resulting in shoppers having less to spend overall.
It’s also fair to say that the town centres that have stood still or provide one dimensional shopping offers with basic experiences have suffered the most. The centres that have evolved or are evolving are those which have suffered less.
As a result of multiple impacts on town centres and in particular shopping centres, they have declined in quality, offer and appeal. Typically shopping centres accommodated multiple retailers, and many of these are now falling out of favour with consumers, resulting in the loss of many from town centres. The days of the ‘retail’ dominated town centre are numbered, if not already gone.
Change can be a good thing, when used as a catalyst to improve experiences and extend the appeal of centres.
Triggers for councils to get involved
As a result of reduced occupancy, higher cost of borrowing, limited opportunity to adapt (due to costs and planning restrictions) and many other reasons, many shopping centre owners have also struggled to adapt and evolve their centres. Some have even collapsed into administration themselves.
This has resulted in councils becoming more actively involved in the ownership, management and development of the centres in their towns. Sometimes through pro-active choice and sometimes through ‘needs must’ reasons.
The findings of this study show that the triggers for councils needing or choosing to get involved in the management / control / ownership of shopping centres and / or major retail units are many and varied. The challenge is that whilst many are obvious and visible, some are not!
Starting with the more visible indicators of decline and need there is no more obvious sign of an asset in peril than a large vacant store and / or centre. Particularly one that has been empty for some time and covered in graffiti and fly posting.
Other visible indicators of decline include declining standards of maintenance, lack of visible investment by occupying businesses, lack of promotional activity, reduced footfall numbers, businesses relocating to other parts of the town centre and so on.
The more challenging task is to identify when an asset is struggling but not visibly. This can only really be achieved through informal conversations with occupants and / or the centre management team, or through other retail stakeholders in the centre such as letting agents, other centre managers and perhaps the BID/place manager if there is one.
Formal conversations with the asset managers or owners may also highlight concerns but equally they may be guarded and reluctant to reveal a perilous financial position or outlook.
Other triggers to getting involved could be a stalled or emerging masterplan where the asset of concern is key to unlocking or delivering it, either through size, location, content or condition.
Involvement can be reactive or proactive, as well as needs driven or opportunistic. The key is to be aware, regularly and proactively monitor the situation, and have a plan already up one’s sleeve (more of this later) and therefore be ready to intervene when the situation calls for it.
The drop downs below provide a summary of the existing and established triggers for council involvement and subsequent investment in their local shopping centres. The triggers listed include the ‘obvious and visible’ referred to previously and those identified by contacts and councils during the research for the study. Those labelled with an asterisk are frequently mentioned triggers. The variety of drivers is very illuminating, although many involve ‘repurposing’.
Examples of repurposing
The previous section focussed on examples of councils becoming actively involved or invested in failing or underperforming retail centres. It also started to identify indicative themes for the repurposing of shopping centres and units within them. It is clear however from a review of market activity, that there are many other examples of schemes or units that have been converted / repurposed by both existing landlords and council landlords.
Many examples of repurposing involve large units that have previously housed department or variety stores that have subsequently become vacant, or smaller shopping centres and even parts of centres. Many include ex-Debenhams department stores from when the chain went into administration a couple of years ago or are M&S variety stores where the business has either left a town centre for good or has moved to an out-of-town unit store on a retail park, just to mention two high profile brands.
Successful repurposing will be in line with local customer needs and adding reasons to use and visit the town centre. The study has identified over 25 repurposing uses; there will be many more emerging. Appendix III contains some of the examples identified in the activity search.
As can be seen in the dropdown below, the types of repurposing undertaken include a wide variety of retail and many more non-retail facilities.
Key lessons and good practice checklist
Introduction
The purpose of the study is to provide a report that would help councils to make informed decisions about investing in their local shopping centre, to provide guidance on the factors to consider, examples of successful interventions, direction on the optimum approach and how to deliver success from a variety of start points.
The findings detailed above and, in the Appendices, provide a wealth of advice and examples of factors to consider and the various approaches that have been successful, as well as the variety of ‘success measures’ used.
In this section we draw the findings of the study into a series of conclusions that set out:
- Best practice lessons learnt
- Checklists / guides
- A review of the six identified output areas:
- Identify the economic, social, and environmental business case for acquiring all or part of a shopping centre.
- Identify the Key Performance Indicators being used to establish the successes of acquisition / partnership.
- Identify local policy approaches that have led to councils locating to or investing in the shopping centre.
- Identify replicable plans and strategies for acquiring shopping centres or partnering with commercial owners to support the regeneration of shopping centres.
- Quantify the economic, social, and environmental benefits now, and in the future, of council intervention in the repurposing of shopping centres.
- Identify any policy gaps for the Government or others to consider.
Best practice lessons learnt
From the findings of the various research areas undertaken as part of the study, it is possible to draw out key conclusions for the study, in regards best practice lessons learnt. These are pointers and factors to consider when planning for future use of your shopping centre, the success of towns and places, and the role that retail centres and units can help to play in that.
Think about your town centre as a consumer would
Monitoring the performance of a town centre needs so much more insight than capturing footfall levels or vacancy rates. Whilst they are useful indicators for confirming usage patterns, or if a problem exists in part or all of the town centre, the data needs more context. The best way to think about the how towns are performing is to think about the extent to which the existing offer is satisfying the needs of local consumers, be they shoppers, residents, workers or visitors. It is important to remember that ‘offer’ includes far more than just traditional retail shop units. In the current climate of effective place management, the broader the ‘offer’, the more reasons to visit and use, the healthier the local economy will be.
Is the offer in tune in regards to market positioning? Does it match the needs of the majority of local consumers? Does the offer seem fresh, and / or are retailers and other town centre business operators motivated or investing in their units? Is the shopping centre owner actively promoting the centre or running events to drive footfall? Are new businesses opening? What are the obvious deficiencies or gaps in the offer? And so on.
If none of the above aspects are visibly present, it could suggest a town centre and its shopping centre that is losing its attraction and is out of sync with local customers, therefore one facing future jeopardy.
Do ask the difficult questions, even if your council is not actively invested or involved. A major part of your town centre should be of interest to you.
Asking the centre or portfolio manager about the ongoing and expected future performance of the shopping centre or even individual businesses will provide some insight and potentially comfort. They may or may not choose to be open with you, however the nature of their response will be of interest.
Asking other town centre stakeholders such as existing businesses, managing / letting agents and other property owners will also provide a range of performance information, albeit potentially anecdotal, but more likely to be truthful and insightful. If an asset is under peril, others are likely to know this, and will normally be happy to share it with a key town stakeholder such as a council.
Plan ahead, be ready to act, be thinking of how to improve your town centre
In the same way that authorities plan for large scale emergencies and disasters, it is prudent to plan for the alternative future of major retail schemes in your town centre. Not only to be ready to act should they fail, but also to be planning for the evolution of the town centre, particularly for centres that were built during the latter part of the last century. Typically, these were built to accommodate a type of town centre offer that appears to be increasingly out of favour with today’s consumer. This could include alternative options ranging from light touch management and intervention, through to outright control. Thinking about, even knowing in advance, what the optimum uses, mix, format and tenant make-up are, will enable your authority to step in quickly and decisively should the need occur. An important lesson is that the future repurposed centre is likely to be very different to the acquired centre, indeed simply replacing the offer with more of the same is unlikely to deliver success. The future offer almost needs to be different. Think widely about alternative content.
Having a pre-prepared plan that can be quickly communicated to existing businesses, stakeholders and the general public will enable expectations and potential concerns to be managed and controlled in order to buy more time for appropriate intervention.
The default assumption should be that the council will need to get involved at some point in the management / direction of your major retail assets and units.
Everything will take much longer than expected
Several authorities have reported / advised that it took much longer to see the benefit of investing in, or controlling shopping centres, in regards to either the consumer experience or in terms of financial benefit. As a rough measure, we would highlight that intervention and reinventions of assets is likely to take two to three times longer than initially expected, to deliver the hoped for results and benefits.
It has become abundantly clear to us over the course of this project, that turning round a failing shopping centre or re-inventing a failed large unit is not easy. By the time the asset is empty and gathering dust, detritus and graffiti, the task of bringing it back to life has just got even harder.
Far better to be informed and even better to have a plan ready to go before the asset gets to this stage.
Each stage of the process will take longer than anticipated; masterplanning, detailed planning, funding and delivery. The only aspect that can happen quicker is the initial purchase or acquisition.
Checklist and guides
| Repurposing process checklist | Potential | Completed |
|---|---|---|
| Objective and research-based assessment of local need, define qualitative and quantitative opportunity, including identify potential gaps in the local market offer, setting the wider place vision | ||
| Assemble the appropriate internal project team, senior leader / public advocate and governance & reporting protocols | ||
| Secure initial funding for the development phase of project | ||
| Tender and procure specialist external support, masterplanning, property, strategy | ||
| Develop the masterplan / optimum scheme (size, scale, mix, format, content, building blocks layout, integration with future townscape and so on), engage with community and stakeholders, internal and external | ||
| Negotiate the best price (if buying existing asset), Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO), site assembly | ||
| Secure finance to fund acquisition, development and construction costs, develop cash flow plan | ||
| Implement meanwhile strategy / action plan to optimise income, reduce losses | ||
| Finalise development and implementation plan, programme and responsibilities | ||
| Communicate the plan (ongoing) to local stakeholders, community and businesses, provide realistic timescales | ||
| Deliver it (whilst being prepared to evolve and adapt the plan) | ||
| Define success measurement / monitoring criteria as well as exit strategy / triggers |
Repurposing Process Checklist (alternative start point)
The previous table provides an overview of the key stages of the ideal process to considering the repurposing of your local shopping centre.
However, the study has shown that the ideal start point is not the one that many councils find themselves in. In which case there will be a number of steps to go through before getting to the ideal start point. These will include:
- Speedy reaction to the crisis trigger point, leading to acquisition or control of the shopping centre
- Meet existing onsite management team, review all operations
- Ensure prompt continuation of trading for existing tenants
- Appoint independent property advisors, managing agents
- Review all operating costs
- Identify any meanwhile opportunities for additional revenue / income
- Stabilise asset, concerns, retain existing tenants
- Buy the time to complete the initial repurposing checklist activity
- Follow repurposing checklist process.
| Success measures for evaluating repurposing | Potential | Completed |
|---|---|---|
| HMG funding allocation measurement / monitoring criteria, places, community, skills and others | ||
| Resident feedback, customer satisfaction, qualitative results | ||
| Quantitative performance KPIs, footfall, rents, yields, Return on Investment (ROI), occupancy, land values, asset value, asset growth | ||
| Visit and spend activity, reported by businesses | ||
| Additionality for the town, more accommodation, more culture, more office, more leisure, more employment / opportunities | ||
| Community benefits, social, wellbeing, health | ||
| Local authority income growth, direct and indirect, reduced losses from centre | ||
| Exit options, hold, maintain, part disposal, full disposal, retain and grow, community asset to name but a few | ||
| Wide range of future success measures, be prepared to adapt success measures at different points in the cycle | ||
| Sustainability improvements, net zero attainment |
The dropdowns below summarise examples of council policy approaches that have led to intervention and ownership identified throughout the study.
We have also listed some of the reasons provided for not investing or being involved in ownership or management of the local centre.
The dropdown below succinctly identifies the range of economic, social and environmental factors that provide both the business case for investing and indeed the potential benefits of investing in the repurposing of the local shopping centre.
Given the high number of councils that are already actively investing in and / or acquiring their local shopping centres for repurposing, it could be concluded that the existing policy environment is sufficiently broad to enable the ongoing acquisition and investment.
That said, there may be areas of policy that could be explored and developed to facilitate and improve the process, including:
- obligation on councils to monitor performance of centres over a certain size / percentage of available town centre floor space
- ease the ability to repurpose and introduce more diversity in town centres through planning
- opportunities to access particular funding mechanisms with longer term repayment options to ease cost of investment
- ability to recruit and develop required skill set and team structure, simplified procurement
- clarity on role and responsibility of the council towards the major shopping centre in its town
- land assembly and site assembly / CPO policies review.
This particular output area could form the content for a separate follow-on study.
Case studies
Nottingham City Council
Just before the Pandemic, Intu (majority owner) was working with Nottingham City Council (minority owner) to bring plans to refurbish, extend and reposition the Broadmarsh Shopping Centre. Unfortunately, as a result of the pressure from having to close during the Pandemic, Intu ran out of cash and entered receivership. As well as the shared plans that were in the public domain, the council had also been prudently working on a secret Plan B as a contingency. Following the collapse of Intu, the council bought the ownership of the scheme from the Official Receiver, to enable it to push forward with Plan B.
In its role as leading on the plans, the council assembled an advisory panel / steering committee of leading local and national regeneration experts and creative thinkers to bring forward bespoke and appropriate proposals for the new scheme. To further inform and revise the proposals, the council undertook the ‘Big Conversation’, an extensive consultation exercise with the general public and other key stakeholders.
The council is currently revising its plans in advance of a planning application, with the latest scheme proposals including new residential and hotel facilities, retail and leisure facilities, public park, tree lined public squares, skate park, outdoor cafes, re-routed major roads and a new library.
The scheme proposals include the retention of part of the former structural skeleton of the old Broadmarsh Centre. This has helped to reduce costs, reduce waste, improve carbon emissions and improve the sustainability of the full proposals. The Frame, as it is known, will provide the backdrop to a changing array of markets, artisan producers, events, concerts, entertainment, sporting events, leisure and adventure offers, as well as green spaces and parks.
It is aimed at bridging the gaps in communities, cultures and generations. It has been designed to enhance views of the castle, and the caves (literally hidden gems of the city).
The council are actively looking for funding from a variety of investors. It is accepted that the full development will take time to get it right. However, some elements will open sooner.
Key lessons include – have a plan, have a plan B, have a creative team, then have a detailed delivery team, be prepared to think differently, be prepared to adapt your plans, include the local community, be patient, keep people informed, deliver in stages.
Oldham Council
Oldham Council has acquired the Spindles Shopping Centre, to help bring forward major redevelopment proposals for the town centre.
The acquisition is part of the wider £280 million ‘Creating a Better Place’ initiative which is looking to improve the whole of the town centre experience, introducing new residential, workplace and a radically different town centre offer.
The exciting and innovative new plans include the repurposing of first floor retail space to office floorspace to accommodate council staff; relocation of the council’s archives into the shopping centre; a new cultural quarter; creation of new food court; new home for Tommyfield Market and new event space. The improvement plans are already underway.
The acquisition of The Spindles was identified as the catalyst for the wider plans. It has enabled the broader perspective and ambitions to be delivered.
Benefits would include a new town centre offer, more workers in the town centre, a new transport hub, travel and access for the town centre. The development will be adding multiple new attractions to the town centre; it is not simply a redevelopment of a shopping centre. It will consolidate the existing strengths and add new elements to the town centre.
The impact and benefit is expected to be felt by every resident in the borough. Success measures are wide and diverse, from improving occupancy levels, to increasing footfall, from adding new elements to developing a viable and sustainable town centre.
Key lessons include – have a plan, have a robust and detailed plan, have a broad view of future potential content, have a creative team, then have a detailed delivery team, be prepared to think differently, be prepared to adapt your plans, include the local community, have excellent leaders for the project, at all stages, be patient, keep people informed, deliver in stages.
Appendix 1
Introduction to The Retail Group and Project Team
The Retail Group has been developing growth strategies and action plans for ‘places’ (towns, market towns, regional centres, cities, districts and streets) for over 30 years. We have successfully developed strategies and action plans to rejuvenate, re-occupy and repurpose shopping centres, assets and vacant units / areas for many city and town centres.
We have been at the forefront of helping ‘places’ to become ‘multi-purpose’ in offer and use, expanding the variety of offers and experiences in towns and city centres, improving existing assets, providing a stronger ‘place’ to shop, enjoy, use, live and visit. Core to The Retail Group’s approach is that future growth and prosperity is intrinsically linked to the needs of consumers. Provide the right offer for residents, workers and visitors and they will visit and spend more, more often, thus ensuring the economic and social sustainability of individual locations.
Increasingly, the ‘right offer’ is far more than just shops. It includes catering, services, leisure, culture, arts, health, wellbeing, employment, and a host of non-commercial activities, from residential, health, public services to educational. The ‘right offer’ also extends to the wider experience factors; access, facilities, public realm and ease of use.
For property clients and councils, we offer objective and carefully researched strategies based on detailed awareness and analysis of national and local markets. We ensure that proposed developments and changes to places of all types and sizes, target and satisfy the future needs and aspirations of all local consumers, stakeholders and investors.
We have defined future town centre strategies for over 300 locations, covering all sizes and types, from market towns like Morpeth and Frome, to sub-regional towns like Ashford and Livingston, to regional destinations such as Birmingham and Bluewater. Our consumer-oriented methodology and approach also enables us to work on iconic locations like Wembley, Greenwich Peninsula and Spitalfields.
In the completion of this report, we have been assisted by project partners Make the Link and Citicentric.
Make the Link has experience of leading policy development at national, regional and local levels, including on retail led regeneration, place making and business investment.
Citicentric is a specialist property consultancy that provides town centre regeneration consultancy services, including property investment, development consultancy, land assembly, curating occupational strategies, leasing vacant property and compulsory purchase.
Appendix 2
Project overview
The following background points summarise the key factors driving the project, based on the brief issued by the client team.
Shopping centres are often the key component for many town centres, they typically dominate the landscape in terms of size, location, facilities and offer. As a result of development trends over the second half of the last century, particularly the last quarter, many towns contained covered shopping centres, playing host to the leading and biggest high street names. Typically, these were owned by institutional landlords with little or no involvement from the council.
Over the last 20 years there has been a steady and increasing trend in the demise of this once dominant form of town centre retailing. Wider economic, technology, social, and property trends have all combined to result in major change and in some instances, the significant decline in occupancy, collapse of once dominant names and even the collapse of landlords and property owners / developers. The term ‘repurposing’ has become synonymous with town centres and their recovery. This has resulted in an increasing ownership of shopping centres by councils, in part as their role as the ‘guardians of place’.
The LGA is eager to identify how it can assist councils to decide on how to, whether to acquire its shopping centres, and to identify best practice lessons that can be used to aid councils in their decision making and future involvement. The brief identified six areas for the study to consider, including:
- Identify the economic, social, and environmental business case for acquiring all or part of a shopping centre.
- Identify the Key Performance Indicators being used to establish the successes of and acquisition or partnership.
- Identify local policy approaches that have led to councils locating or investing in the shopping centre.
- Identify replicable plans and strategies for acquiring shopping centres or partnering with commercial owners to support the regeneration of shopping centres.
- Quantify the economic, social, and environmental benefits now, and in the future, of council intervention in the repurposing of shopping centres.
- Identify any policy gaps for the Government or others to consider.
This report showcases best practice and makes recommendations for councils on how best to intervene when shopping centres are unable to maintain footfall. This will be evidence based and supported by case studies, interviews and other evidence that is appropriate.
Project approach and methodology
The core workstreams of the study are summarised below:
- Immersion – This included further detailed briefing on background and preferred outcomes. A key part of the immersion discussion and process was to commence the identification of stakeholders, particularly council contacts and the appropriate person / level of council officer to engage with. This resulted in the study focussing on senior officers, director level and leaders. Other stakeholders included property industry contacts.
- Survey of contacts – The aim of this key research workstream was to canvas the experience of a cross section of councils, including those that had and had not invested in their local shopping centre. The project team identified a shortlist of 50 established contacts with councils to be included in the survey. These contacts complied with the brief’s requirements to include a geographic spread and also a variety in place size and type. A bespoke survey / questionnaire was created to include specific questions looking at current ownership / involvement, historic ownership, reasons for investing, current activity, future activity, issue, success and lessons learnt.
- Evidence and activity review – The project team were able to access a variety of already published work, including online articles, sector specific reports within industry magazines, existing data base of activity and inhouse project files. This provided a wider context for the development of the stakeholder discussions and survey of contacts.
- LGA Workshop – The workshop was originally planned to be completed after the completion of the report. However, it was completed prior to the conclusion of the study, so that the findings and lessons could be shared with councils sooner, and to include any further experiences from workshop attendees within the body of the research.
- Outputs / Deliverables, Best Practice Lessons Learnt / Case Study References – The findings of all research workstreams have been combined to provide the required outputs and deliverables of the study. With the exception of the survey of contacts, the report does not detail individual area findings.
Appendix 3
Contact survey – Introduction
In order to collate first-hand experience of current and existing council activity in regard to the acquisition and repurposing of shopping centres, the study included a survey of existing contacts at councils.
The project team initially identified a long list of potential contacts to approach, all of which were existing clients or personal contacts of the project team members. From this the team identified a short list of 52 councils where we had an individual and direct contact with a senior officer, director or chief executive.
The team drafted a contact survey questionnaire to ascertain the level of historic ownership and / or interest in the local shopping centre (or centres) in the key towns in the borough. The questionnaire also covered a variety of topics, from reasons for additional investment, funding, future plans, success measures and acquisition rationale.
Each contact received an individual email introducing the survey, its objectives and the wider aims of the LGA study. Respondents were able to complete the survey online or as a printed document, whichever they preferred.
The survey achieved a good response from the initial distribution, with three questionnaires being returned through email, 11 completed in the initial online wave, and a further three respondents providing verbal feedback. Post the delivery of the workshop, we received another seven completed surveys, providing a data set of 24 responses, representing almost half of the initial distribution (note some respondents were outside of the initial distribution as they were workshop attendees). This represents a high response rate from such a survey format. Whilst the number and particularly the quality of information is strong, it is not sufficient for a quantitative analysis of the results.
Answers have been reported to all the survey questions where possible and informative, quoting the number of responses for any particular response option (many questions were multi-choice format), to demonstrate the propensity of the response options. Where the number of responses are provided, the total number for that question is also provided, as response levels varied for each question. A number of questions were open ended, for these we have summarised the comment and grouped them where possible.
The contact survey was completed on a confidential basis, and the report does not attribute individual responses to any of the questions.
However, we would like to thank officers from all of the councils for their time and input into the study.
Summary
The contact survey has provided a wealth of information to use as part of the best practice guide element of the report. Key summary points include:
- Circa 50 per cent of responding councils are ‘actively involved’ in their shopping centre. The remainder are passively involved.
- Circa 50 per cent have some form of formal ownership, some being freeholders.
- Ownership and involvement varies, more opportunity for involvement.
- Reasons for investing are dominated by ‘Masterplan Delivery’.
- Funding acquisition is typically through Public Works Loan Board.
- Councils are actively changing the centres they own.
- Aims and ambitions are focussed on improving the appeal of the town, the uses, activity and occupancy.
- Council investment is viewed as successful. That said, success criteria is varied, over 15 variables identified. For some it is ‘too early to say’.
- Lessons are varied and many – be flexible, have a plan or strategy, use external expertise, have a good team, engage with the public and other property owners, negotiate hard, construction costs are high and increasing. Procurement needs to improve.
- Think widely, differently and creatively about future uses for the town centre.
- Even a decision to not purchase can lead to a review of council aims, ambition, role and input to its town centres future sustainability.
Appendix 4
Examples of council intervention and ownership
Appendix 5
Examples of repurposing
Appendix 6
Councils and companies that registered for study webinar
- Adur and Worthing Councils
- Amber Valley Borough Council
- AppleThatch Property Consultants Limited
- Ashford Borough Council
- LB Barking and Dagenham Council
- Barnet Council
- Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council
- Bassetlaw District Council
- Birmingham City Council
- Blackpool Borough Council
- Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council
- Bradford Metropolitan District Council
- Braintree District Council
- Breckland Council
- Brentwood Borough Council
- Bridgend County Borough Council
- Buckinghamshire Council
- Burnley Borough Council
- Cambridge City Council
- Canterbury City Council
- Chelmsford City Council
- Cherwell District Council
- Cheshire West and Chester Council
- Chesterfield Borough Council
- Citi Centric
- Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council
- Dorset Council
- Exeter City Council
- Fareham Borough Council
- Gloucester City Council
- Gloucestershire County Council
- Gravesham Borough Council
- Great Yarmouth Borough Council
- Greater London Authority
- Harlow District Council
- Harrow Council
- Hartlepool Borough Council
- Hastings Borough Council
- Havant Borough Council
- Hillingdon London Borough Council
- Kirklees Metropolitan Borough Council
- Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council
- Lewisham London Borough Council
- Liverpool City Council
- Local Government Association
- Make the Link
- Mansfield District Council
- Medway Council
- Mole Valley District Council
- Neath Port Talbot
- Newcastle Upon Tyne City Council
- Norfolk County Council
- North Devon District Council
- North East Lincolnshire Council
- North Hertfordshire District Council
- North Lincolnshire Council
- North Northamptonshire Council
- North Somerset Council
- North West Leicestershire District Council
- Nottingham City Council
- Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council
- Pendle Borough Council
- Reigate & Banstead Borough Council
- Rushmoor Borough Council
- Salford City Council
- Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council
- Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council
- Shropshire Council
- Somerset West and Taunton District Council
- South Tyneside Council
- Southend on Sea Borough Council
- Stevenage Borough Council
- Surrey County Council
- Sutton London Borough Council
- Teignbridge District Council
- Tendring District Council
- Thanet District Council
- The Retail Group
- Thurrock Borough Council
- Torbay Council
- Tunbridge Wells Borough Council
- Wakefield Council
- Warwickshire County Council
- West Oxfordshire District Council
- Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council
- Worthing Borough Council
- Wyre Forest District Council