Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the length of time that vacant shops in town centres remain empty.

The Government has taken significant steps to tackle the blight of vacant shops. An important step has been to offer a temporary 50% discount to new occupants of shops that have been vacant for a year or more, thereby incentivising enterprising individuals to try out new business ideas on the high street.

We have also relaxed planning rules to support entrepreneurship so, for instance, we have worked with local authorities to promote using shops for short-term “meanwhile use”, or as pop-up shops. This means that owners can take advantage of a temporary change of use to make their underused or empty premises available for businesses looking for an opportunity to try out new ideas, while ensuring vacant premises are occupied and contributing to the wider health of the high street.

The Government has also taken steps to make planning use classes more flexible to allow local authorities and businesses to better respond to the needs of their communities. For instance this has allowed certain retail spaces to be converted to residential units, providing much needed homes.

We have also championed the innovative use of vacant shops through the Great British High Street Competition. A number of the entrants set out the innovative ways that they are tackling empty shops on the high streets and we have promoted their examples on the Great British High Street Portal and through documents such as Celebrating the Great British High Street.