That this House has considered Government policy on high street rental auctions.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Vickers. As many Members know, our high streets are the beating heart of our communities. They are not simply places where people shop. They are gathering points and cultural centres and they serve as symbols of local identity. They fuel local economies, support countless small businesses and provide many thousands of jobs. They inspire confidence in our communities and encourage residents to stay connected to the areas they live in.
For too long, our high streets have been neglected. They have become defined by the number of empty shop fronts and “to let” signs they sport, rather than by the vibrancy and the footfall that once sustained them. When people stop visiting town centres, antisocial behaviour and crime are allowed to flourish, creating vicious cycles that benefit only those looking to create disorder and discord in our communities.
Town centres were once a great source of pride for our communities, but their decline has had real consequences. We cannot deny that the retail landscape has changed, and it is a challenge to adapt to this new reality. The rise of online shopping, out-of-town retail parks and over a decade of austerity have left town centres struggling to adapt. This is a national story that I am sure Members across the House will recognise, and it is one that characterises our experience in Bournemouth West.
My constituents are rightly frustrated by the state of our town centre. It is the No. 1 issue that people bring up on the doorstep and in conversation. Time and again, I hear that people feel unsafe—they are worried about reports of drug use and homelessness—or that there is nothing for them to do in the town centre. Empty shops, a lack of variety and overall decline have led many people to change the way that they interact with Bournemouth, and sadly, many of my constituents have not visited the town centre in many years due to its falling reputation.
Bournemouth was once known for its vibrant shopping streets, its summer tourism and its cultural heritage. Long-time residents yearn for the days when we could walk down the old Christchurch Road and pop into Beales or Dingles, or head over to the Westover Road, which was often referred to as the Bond Street of Bournemouth, with its luxury brands and high-end goods. That is the Bournemouth I remember from my childhood—a town that was thriving and safe. My parents never thought twice about letting me get on the bus or the train to spend the day in Bournemouth with my friends.
Over the past decade, we have seen an increasing number of shop closures and long-term vacant premises, with no apparent plan for repurposing or reuse. Changes in consumer behaviour, the arrival of Castlepoint—an out-of-town shopping centre—and the cost of living crisis have all had their part to play, and we currently face a staggering 15% vacancy rate of shop fronts, which is far above the national average. The failure to revitalise these spaces has more than just economic consequences; it has major implications for the way people feel about our town.
I thank my hon. Friend for securing a debate on an important issue that is raised regularly with me in Stafford. I have spoken to a local small business owner, Alison, who is concerned about the vibrancy of Stafford high street and told me that a shop nearby had been closed for over two decades. Does my hon. Friend agree that these powers are long overdue and that by giving local authorities greater control, the Government have taken a vital first step towards revitalising our high streets?
The story my hon. Friend tells about the shop in her constituency is one that I am sure many of us recognise from our own. High street rental auctions can have a transformative effect in many towns around the country, and I will come on to that.
Despite the challenges we face, Bournemouth has much potential and so much to offer. Its beach was recently rated the 12th best in the world by Tripadvisor users. It has amazing examples of heritage architecture just waiting to be repurposed. If we were to design the town of the future, it would have the beautiful gardens that run like a central artery through our town, connecting the beach to the town hall.
I am pleased to say that there are lots of green shoots to celebrate. Bobby’s, in the Square, has been repurposed into a multi-use space, including Patch, a collaborative workplace for small businesses and start-ups. That has huge potential to serve as a community hub, hosting local events—including one that I am hosting next week on women’s safety in the town centre—and providing support to new entrepreneurs. The former House of Fraser building is also being converted, into student accommodation, and its large commercial space is being converted into smaller units, making them more accessible to a wide range of businesses.
The Ivy has arrived. Home-grown businesses such as Bad Hand Coffee and Naked Coffee have transformed unused spaces and are supporting an ecosystem of retail and hospitality. We have a burgeoning tech and creative industries sector, supporting the town and making use of the talent coming out of our world-leading universities and colleges. I will also namecheck Trove, Calabrese, Revival café and Brazilian Snacks. They are all local businesses making an outsize contribution to our high street. I encourage as many of my local residents as possible to rediscover and to champion all the good things that are happening in Bournemouth.
However, the scale of the challenge is still enormous. For too long, Governments have left it to the market, which has seen the managed decline of our high streets. To tackle that challenge, we require urgent action, collaboration between central and local government as well as the private sector, and creativity in how we imagine our high streets and town centres of the future—with a mix of culture, retail, hospitality and community spaces.
We are seeing some really exciting investment in Derby city centre, with a new performance venue, a new business school and the reopening of our market hall, but like so many city and town centres, we struggle with too many empty shops. Does my hon. Friend agree that high street rental auctions could be a really important tool in tackling empty shops, and how does she think that councils can be supported to use these new powers?
Yes, these auctions are a promising step forward and could be transformational for many towns across the country. I will come on to the local authority points in a moment.
The auctions require landlords to lease properties within a certain timeframe, preventing them from leaving spaces empty for years on end. The time restriction of 365 days in a 24-month period will help to tackle the persistent problem of vacant properties, which is a huge opportunity for communities such as mine in Bournemouth West. By enabling councils to take action, we can reintegrate those spaces into our high streets and bring them back to life.
However, it is crucial that we think about the long-term sustainability of this approach. I have been assured by landlords and agents in my constituency that there is a genuine desire to fill empty commercial properties, but business rates, antisocial behaviour and even parking charges constitute barriers, so to landlords it is important to say that the approach should be a tool of last resort. It is clear that such measures should be used only once a genuinely collaborative and good-faith approach between landlords and councils has been exhausted. The auctions should be seen in the context of other measures to which this Government have committed, ranging from supporting small businesses and tackling crime and antisocial behaviour in our town centres to the long-term reform of business rates. I am pleased that we are making progress on all these issues.
High street rental auctions are not just about filling vacancies. They are about creating vibrant, sustainable environments for businesses, residents and visitors alike, so can my hon. Friend the Minister provide assurances that high street rental auctions will not see our high streets filled with more vape shops and American candy shops? [Hon. Members: “Hear, hear.”] They can often be fronts for money laundering and other criminal activity. Additionally, we need to ensure that our local authorities have the resources and capacity to manage these changes.
I thank my hon. Friend and constituency neighbour for securing this important debate. Our local authority, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council, is part of the early adopters programme for this scheme, but when I contacted it recently to ask about the number of properties that it had identified in our area that were going to be part of the scheme, it told me that it was just one. Does my hon. Friend agree with me that we need to see a more ambitious approach from local authorities for the scheme really to be worth while?
I thank my hon. Friend and neighbour from Poole for the intervention. I certainly hope that our local authority will take an ambitious approach and I am working very closely with it to help it to identify areas within Bournemouth town centre. BCP council has expressed concern about the cost of having to implement such measures, and the potential for expensive legal challenges it may face as a result. I would be grateful if the Minister would outline how we can mitigate some of those issues, and how the £1.5 million that has been set aside is intended to be used.
I underline that this is a moment for action. The powers granted to local councils are a great step forward, but we need to ensure that the changes are not simply superficial. We must think about how we can make our high streets and the commercial offering work for everyone —for businesses, our communities and the economy as a whole. I will continue to champion the revitalisation of our high streets in Parliament; by working together, we can ensure that our high streets become the thriving, vibrant centres that they were always meant to be.
It is fantastic to see my hon. Friends the Members for Bassetlaw (Jo White) and for Mansfield (Steve Yemm), and my hon. Friend the Member for Darlington (Lola McEvoy) was meant to be here as well. Their local authorities are also early adopters of the scheme. I look forward to hearing their contributions and to continuing this important conversation. I also encourage other Members to speak to their own local authorities and push them to join this initiative.
We have a real opportunity to break the vicious cycles that I mentioned at the beginning of this speech, and to turn them into virtuous circles, where we fill our shops, increase footfall, reduce antisocial behaviour, and again build pride in our town centres and high streets across the country.
Order. I remind Members to bob if they wish to speak. If we are to accommodate all those who have given advance notice, we need to restrict contributions to about six or seven minutes. Members should bear that in mind. I call Gideon Amos.
I congratulate the hon. Member for Bournemouth West (Jessica Toale) on bringing this key issue for our town centres to Westminster Hall.
I was elected on a platform that focused in part on bringing inward investment to Taunton and Wellington, and that passion is close to my heart. Taunton and Wellington town centres are already attractive and vibrant places to visit, to shop and for leisure. Occupancy rates in Taunton town centre have increased from 85% to 90%; more new businesses are moving in. Somerset County Gazette reports seven new businesses in the town centre in the past 12 months: Cornish Bakery, Koottaan, Desparia, Somerset Bakehouse, Toys “R” Us, Drippy Bear and Islands Caribbean restaurant—not a vape shop among them, which is good to see for our town centre.
In Wellington, street food and food festivals bring people in from far and wide, and a new banking hub has opened. My only objection to the new banking hub, which is great news for Wellington, is that it is run by the Post Office, with a sign above the door saying “Post Office”, but there is no post office inside. Wellington still needs a post office, and we hope that the Government will see the light and decide that buildings with “Post Office” on the outside should contain a post office. We will continue working on that as hard as we can.
On Sundays, Taunton has a fantastic new independent market, which brings people in from far and wide. However, one building is a particular issue for our town centre. It was built as a W & A Chapman department store in 1938, and was substantially remodelled in the ’60s, just after Debenhams took it over in 1959. It is a large, handsome building, and a real landmark in the centre of our town—one of the biggest buildings in the heart of our town centre, if not the largest. However, it has stood empty, sadly, for around four years now.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Vickers. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth West (Jessica Toale) for securing this important debate.
It was the honour of my life last summer to be elected as the local Member of Parliament in Mansfield, partly because some of my earliest memories are of my older cousins taking me into the thriving, beautiful town centre, which at that time hosted a bustling local business scene. My favourite was the Miss Candy sweet shop—it was not the American kind—which my cousins would take me to before we went to the Granada cinema in Mansfield town centre.
Sadly, over the years, our high streets have lost a great deal of the sparkle I remember as a child. They have become a shadow of their former selves, with one in seven high street shops closed across the country. Mansfield is no exception, with one in six closed, which is not very different from what we see in other parts of the country. Many of the big-name anchor retailers mentioned today—Beales, Woolworths and Debenhams—have all gone from Mansfield. Unfortunately, many of the small businesses that have been in the town for generations have also disappeared in recent years. Antisocial behaviour remains an issue, with vacant, boarded-up shops becoming an eyesore, often attracting those who want to loiter and sometimes cause trouble. Police cuts under the former Government also meant that local officers were less able to patrol and intervene.
It is not inevitable that our towns will continue this degree of decline and deterioration. In Mansfield, we of course want a thriving town centre with a mix of traders, facilities and community assets that attract people to the town. I therefore thank local organisations, such as Mansfield district council, which is working hard with organisations like the Mansfield BID—the business improvement district—to improve our town, including by converting the former Beales department store into a new community and civic hub. This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for renewal will transform the former Beales into a hub hosting a range of organisations —including educational institutions—public services and opportunities for enterprise, health and wellbeing amenities.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Vickers. I thank the hon. Member for Bournemouth West (Jessica Toale) for securing today’s debate. She has been extremely busy today: she asked a question at Prime Minister’s questions, and now she is leading this debate, so well done to her. I should just say that I have not had a PMQ in five years, so she has done really well—[Laughter.] Not that I am disappointed, by the way.
It is a pleasure to participate in the debate, because I am really keen on this scheme. When I saw the title for the debate, I said, “What exactly are they after?” We do not have the scheme in Northern Ireland, but I think I am going to present it to my Minister at the Northern Ireland Assembly and make my local council aware of it, because it could benefit my constituency of Strangford and other constituencies right across Northern Ireland. It shows a way forward; the hon. Lady referred to that, as did the hon. Member for Mansfield (Steve Yemm), and others will do the same.
I very much respect the steps the hon. Lady has taken to rejuvenate local high streets and town centres. Those places are the pillars of our communities, and we must ensure that they are protected. I am probably fortunate to have a fairly thriving town centre in Newtownards, although I have recently noticed an increased number of vacancies, which we have not had for a great many years. That tells me that there is a trend starting, and one that we need to be aware of. That is why I want to take this debate a wee bit further, and I will do so.
The Government’s high street rental auction initiative is a great way to improve high street footfall. In my constituency of Strangford, for example, many wonderful community groups and small businesses could really benefit from having a central space to undertake their work. I have some ideas on how we could bring that about through community initiatives, and perhaps with other groups that would be keen to do something in the town.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Vickers. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth West (Jessica Toale) on securing this important debate on high street rental auctions and everything that that means for representatives of towns in particular around this country.
I was elected on a commitment to help to fix our town centres and get them back to being places where people want to spend time and enjoy spending time, bringing back a sense of community. These increased powers for local authorities are a fantastic opportunity to unlock the full potential of high streets across the nation, including the ones in my constituency of Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes. The Labour Government’s announcement on high street rental auctions is a welcome and much-needed intervention to give greater control of the state of our high streets back to local people, to empower them and their local authorities, and to give them the opportunity to play a part in revitalising our high streets.
We have had levelling-up funds, towns funds, future high streets funds and many more—too many for me to remember. They were fragmented and piecemeal initiatives offered by previous Governments, generally characterised by competitive funding pots that pitted towns against one another. Ultimately, they have failed to deliver the changes that were promised, and they have left communities like ours—I am guessing from the supportive groans behind me that Members agree—frustrated at the many promises but little or delayed delivery.
This proposal is a substantial change that will give power back to local areas, putting them in charge of their own destinies and how they want to meaningfully revive their high streets. As a case in point, the redevelopment of the shopping centre in Grimsby is very controversial, with £25 million spent by the local authority on purchasing Freshney Place, which has long had significant leaks in its roof. It is causing concern for local residents—is it a white elephant? That is only one of the changes that has been taken on in an attempt to repurpose Grimsby town centre for 21st-century habits, while recognising the increase in online shopping.
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That is why I welcome the Government action to introduce high street rental auctions. They are taking the action that the last Government failed to take and giving local authorities the power to bring vacant commercial properties back into use. I am proud that Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council has been selected as an early adopter for the scheme.
I welcome the high street auction provisions in the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023, which could be extremely useful. However, the powers to allow councils to carry out high street rental auctions are subject to a number of restrictions. Auctions apply to commercial premises that have been vacant for at least one year out of the past two, which is a reasonable requirement—so far, so good. They must also meet a suitability requirement—this is getting a bit doubtful. Then there are process and landlord obligations: local authorities can issue a final letting notice compelling a landlord to rent the property via auction, which is obviously a good move. The property must also be offered at a fair market rent, which is reasonable. Then there is an appeal mechanism, so there are more catches. One potential challenge is that the auction’s success depends on tenant demand. Who will define tenant demand? If we do not attempt an auction, how will we discover what tenant demand is? The appeal process provides a number of areas for challenge by the landowner.
Whether or not high street rental auctions are suitable for that particular Debenhams building, I am concerned about the number of exceptions from the powers. The guidance says:
“High Street Rental Auctions will not be suitable for all high street premises; for instance, large former department stores may be subject to long-term, complex redevelopment plans which may be negatively impacted by being subject to inclusion.”
Presumably, any owner of a former department store could say, “My department store is subject to complex, long-term redevelopment plans, which could be negatively impacted by a high street auction.” A whole class of town centre buildings—some of the biggest we have—therefore seem to be excluded from high street rental auctions, which is a real drawback and a real shame.
The guidance also says that auctions will not be appropriate
“should the local authority consider that there is not likely to be a sufficient tenant base and demand for the premises”.
As I said, how do we know what the demand for the premises is if we have not attempted to market them through high street auctions? I urge the Government to look at the guidance and the powers, and to see whether they could be applied to some of the biggest, most iconic buildings in our town centres, which are of course empty department stores.
Even in a healthy town centre such as Taunton’s, the presence of one large building that remains empty can be a real problem. Whether or not it is suitable for a high street auction, the building in question in Taunton really needs attention; it needs to be dealt with, because it has been empty since 2021. Planning permission was sought in 2020 to demolish it and build apartments. That application was withdrawn, but it could have been refused. The Twentieth Century Society praised the building’s architecture and made it subject to a listing application, although it did not quite make the grade. It has an important place in the hearts of people in Taunton. It has 7,000 square metres of floor space, so it is a big building. Many believe that it could be saved and reused. It occupies a fantastic location, with the River Tone on one side, one of the key town centre streets on the frontage, and our fantastic Taunton castle on a third side, which has been the historic seat of government in the county of Somerset for hundreds of years.
One reason why the building might be suitable for refurbishment is that demolishing it would bring a requirement to carry out archaeological investigations. During the previous application, Historic England produced one of the lengthiest representations I have ever seen, which suggested that investigations would be required. If the building is not demolished, that work would not be needed, which would potentially be a much cheaper operation for the owners.
We have tried to engage with the owners of the building, but it has been challenging. The town council and groups of architects have brought forward schemes for the building, but they have been unable to get floor plans or really engage with the owners. I reached out and wrote to the owners via recorded delivery, email and all the other methods I could think of, and I was pleased that Ropemaker Properties recently came back to me. I am grateful to the company for offering to meet me and Taunton town council to discuss how this important building can be brought back into use, and for putting that meeting in the diary.
Finally, I urge the Government to think about the extent of these powers and whether big department stores should be completely excluded from them.
I very much welcome that, but we need to do more. That is why I stood as an MP, making it one of my missions to revitalise our town centre as part of my deliverable local plan. I am therefore proud to support a Government who have already taken decisive action to support that effort, including by committing to a £20 million investment for Mansfield as part of the long-term plan for towns, permanently lowering business rates and providing more money to tackle retail crime.
The Government are also introducing—this is the topic we are discussing today—powers to establish high street rental auctions. As has been mentioned, that new and creative policy will help to regenerate our high streets. Having engaged with the Government, I am delighted that Mansfield has been chosen as one of the first areas to participate in this initiative. These trailblazing new powers will allow Mansfield district council to tackle persistently vacant properties by putting leases up for auction, preventing disengaged landlords from sitting on empty properties, and bringing vacant commercial properties back into use.
That will have a transformational impact on our town centre, making units available for all manner of organisations, from local entrepreneurs to community groups. It will help to re-energise our town centre in a way we have not seen for a generation or more. Although the project is in its early days, the Government recently made funding available to Mansfield district council, which is currently engaging to deliver on this new approach.
Having spoken to officers involved in delivering the policy in Mansfield, I understand that they have concerns about how the scheme will be implemented—notably around the council’s flexibility in spending the money allocated to deliver the policy. In the council’s opinion, some minor changes could make a significant difference in supporting it to deliver this important policy. As such, I would be grateful if the Minister could meet me and officers from Mansfield district council to discuss those changes further in a constructive manner.
To conclude, I thank the Government for supporting Mansfield in this way, and I look forward to us working together so that we can support our town centre. That shows what a Labour Government, a Labour MP and a Labour council, working hand in hand, can deliver for people across the country, including in Mansfield.
Of course, as others probably have, I have written to Chick-fil-A, to Popeyes and to some carry-out stores to introduce them to my constituency. They make plans three or four years ahead, so I am hoping that my letters from the last year will bring those names to Newtownards —they are something Northern Ireland has very little of—and that we can advance things. The HSRA scheme does not apply directly to Northern Ireland, or to the devolved nations, but we have a different way of selling our residential and commercial properties. I am therefore keen to hear how this scheme works.
One change I have seen, probably in the last three or four years, has been the increase in online sales. We have many family stores, and one—I will not mention the name of the owner or the store—is a modern clothes store for the modern shopper. It used to sell everything across the counter, but 40% of its business is now across the counter, while 60% is online. Is that one of the things that will be promoted—ensuring that the shops stay and can run their online business from where they are? Again, that is something that I am particularly glad to see.
The hon. Member for Taunton and Wellington (Gideon Amos) referred to banking hubs. Again, that is something I have been involved with as well. We have lost 11 banks in my constituency. We have lost every bank in Ballynahinch and in Comber—two of our major towns—but, along with the Government, we have been supporting the banking hub initiative. One of the new banking hubs has opened in the middle of Comber, which will bring people to the town centre again from elsewhere in the town and from the countryside. There is another hub planned for Ballynahinch. As I said in a debate this morning, my frustration with banking hubs is that it takes so darn long for them to happen. Banking hubs are a really important alternative to a bank, and we have done some work on that.
When I look back, the negative trend probably started with the covid-19 pandemic, which is terribly frustrating. I understand that Newtownards and Bangor, which are in Ards and North Down, have a 21% vacancy rate on commercial property. That is really worrying, and we have to address it. The vacancies are not all in the town centre—some of them are out of town—but they add to a scenario that is quite worrying.
I will follow up with my council and my Minister about introducing the scheme that the Government have put forward and how that could help, because I believe that the projects that other hon. Members have referred to are worthy of designated funding. I have a special request of the Minister, as I always do of Ministers: could she make contact with the Minister back home, who I am pretty sure would be Gordon Lyons at the Department for Communities, so that Westminster and the devolved Assembly can work together?
The high street rental auctions scheme has many benefits; I have heard about some of them today, and I will hear about more before the debate is over. I look to how we can work together. As I always say—and I say it with genuine sincerity—we might have different ideas in the regions we come from, but we have a united interest in this great United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and we can share ideas. This is an opportunity to share ideas to help my constituents and help my major town of Newtownards, as well as Comber and Ballynahinch, to do better. If we can do that, this will have been a very good debate.
The redevelopment has laudable aims, but seven years after signing a purported £67 million town deal and a further four years after local growth funding, the most that anybody visiting the town centre could say is that the Conservative council has managed to repave the old bus station area again. As you know, Mr Vickers, that is a source of contention locally, with some seating and landscaping, but also shingle that unfortunately spreads itself all over—that has created another mess and another problem. Even that work was over time and over budget. People look at those headline figures and wonder where on earth all the money has gone because they cannot see any evidence of it in the delivery.
We can contrast that effort, which has taken a very long time, with the redevelopment of St James House, a long neglected and derelict building opposite our historic minster in the heart of the town centre. A local business support organisation called E-Factor has taken that building on and, after intense work, is due to open its doors of brand-new business suites, completely revitalising the building and turning what was a bit of a monstrosity into a place that people want to work out of. The empty building drew antisocial behaviour to it—undesirables gravitated to the old car parking spaces that were neglected and left—but now people are pleased and proud to be part of the new development. That is an indication of what can come from expanding the powers of local authorities.
On Grimsby’s commercial vacancy rate at the end of 2023, I see Bournemouth’s 15% vacancy rate and raise it to Grimsby’s 27%, which is over double the national average. My hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth West used the word “staggering”, which I echo, because it really is. Even in the attractive and bustling St Peter’s Avenue in Cleethorpes, the vacant shop fronts seem to be staying vacant for much longer.
Such properties leave high streets with lengthy stretches of nothingness at risk of vandalism and, frankly, are a bit depressing to walk down when going to the shops. The fact that they are vacant for long periods does not seem to incentivise landlords in any way to reduce their rental asking prices. It seems that they would rather leave them vacant until the right client comes along, although I am not sure who those right clients are. Supporting our high streets also means championing the fantastic businesses that we already have.
In north-east Lincolnshire, the dedicated 2025 Group is committed to seeing our town flourish, and I am sure it will welcome the legislation. We have brilliant independent businesses in the constituency doing their best and playing their part. They are the backbone of our local economy and they will all benefit from the new powers, as they will no longer be sandwiched between derelict or empty premises.
I urge my local authority, North East Lincolnshire council, to take full advantage of the high street rental auctions when they are fully rolled out to maximise the ongoing work, complement it and aid its sustainability. They are a fantastic opportunity to tackle those empty shops and support local businesses, entrepreneurs, youth creatives and budding new organisations that have been crying out for affordable and central spaces to support their ideas and businesses, and they will help to restore pride in our community. By bringing those spaces back into use, we can create more jobs, attract more visitors and make our town centres the thriving spaces they deserve to be.