| The Govt on High Streets 13:17 - Aug 12 with 1068 views | Swansea_Blue |
https://www.gov.uk/government/
Isn’t this a bit of a case of peeing in the wind? Giving local authorities and communities more control sounds good in practice, but if you’re lamenting the decline in shops and pubs I can’t see how restricting vape shops or bookies helps.
Housing seems a more obvious thing to encourage. Convert upstairs floors above shops into flats, redevelop making housing at the core. Keeps much needed houses away from greenfield sites and brings people into town centres. If the people are there the businesses will follow as long as rents aren’t prohibitive. |  |
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| The Govt on High Streets on 13:21 - Aug 12 with 1036 views | ElderGrizzly |
We've got a few shops empty in Ely for over 2 years now, where its known the landlords are sitting on them as empty so they can convert to housing.
I agree with you, the mix of housing and shops should be encouraged, but this type of language on 'rogue operators' appears to also be nudging at Reform type voters.
At least he didn't mention Turkish barbers. |  | | |
| The Govt on High Streets on 13:36 - Aug 12 with 950 views | urbanpenguin |
Housing is not the way to go I think. At least not in the way we develop and plan housing in this country at the moment.
There certainly is more room for housing in the mix in town centres and high streets, but it would be very sad to convert a high street into housing. The purpose and point of a high street as a civic place of coming together, collaboration, meeting, sharing, consuming, celebrating etc would be lost forever, where what we should be doing is reimagining what these things mean for a city in the 21st century that can build on a vernacular forged in the 17-20th centuries.
Also, most commercial-to-housing conversions are really tragic. I have seen permitted developments for flats with only one tiny window into a shared courtyard, or where people have to basically walk through a restaurants storage area to get to their apartment. Our planning system is in a fight to the bottom and this will see the worst of it.
There should be changes generally to Rates, to engaging communities and charities to use empty space (in fact, I oversee a charity that does this across the UK pretty well), and I think there should be a form of managed rent control that is structured to allow new businessowners over chains that rarely pay much UK tax. |  |
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| The Govt on High Streets on 13:42 - Aug 12 with 913 views | SuperKieranMcKenna |
Business rates are a killer also. I know a few small businesses that closed down their premises and ran it from home because of the crippling costs.
Controversial for some, but council car parks are free in afternoons where I live, and the high st is thriving (not bookies and vape shops), with a great footfall. Otherwise people will just go to out of town retail. The parking cost in Ipswich and some other big towns is crippling and self defeating. |  | | |
| The Govt on High Streets on 13:44 - Aug 12 with 890 views | Swansea_Blue |
| The Govt on High Streets on 13:36 - Aug 12 by urbanpenguin |
Housing is not the way to go I think. At least not in the way we develop and plan housing in this country at the moment.
There certainly is more room for housing in the mix in town centres and high streets, but it would be very sad to convert a high street into housing. The purpose and point of a high street as a civic place of coming together, collaboration, meeting, sharing, consuming, celebrating etc would be lost forever, where what we should be doing is reimagining what these things mean for a city in the 21st century that can build on a vernacular forged in the 17-20th centuries.
Also, most commercial-to-housing conversions are really tragic. I have seen permitted developments for flats with only one tiny window into a shared courtyard, or where people have to basically walk through a restaurants storage area to get to their apartment. Our planning system is in a fight to the bottom and this will see the worst of it.
There should be changes generally to Rates, to engaging communities and charities to use empty space (in fact, I oversee a charity that does this across the UK pretty well), and I think there should be a form of managed rent control that is structured to allow new businessowners over chains that rarely pay much UK tax. |
I was thinking more along the lines of the London outer zones areas where you have flats above shops and developments of flats very close to the centres, so very much mixed use. Not predominantly housing. Fair points on the quality of conversions though - we’re going to be trying to maximise developer profits whatever we do. Maybe that’s where the change needs to come in with much clearer civic-focussed vision and planning and tighter development controls so that redevelopment of centres is genuinely geared around nice wnivonments for its people. That sounds like a pipe dream though and something you’d only find somewhere like Finland. | |
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| The Govt on High Streets on 16:35 - Aug 12 with 721 views | jayessess |
| The Govt on High Streets on 13:44 - Aug 12 by Swansea_Blue |
I was thinking more along the lines of the London outer zones areas where you have flats above shops and developments of flats very close to the centres, so very much mixed use. Not predominantly housing. Fair points on the quality of conversions though - we’re going to be trying to maximise developer profits whatever we do. Maybe that’s where the change needs to come in with much clearer civic-focussed vision and planning and tighter development controls so that redevelopment of centres is genuinely geared around nice wnivonments for its people. That sounds like a pipe dream though and something you’d only find somewhere like Finland. |
Given the prevailing economic conditions - out of town retail, online shopping, rising rents and energy prices - the only way we'd get the kind of high streets most people want is by basically having the council own and run the space, then shaping what's there according to civic need and local preference.
But if you actually did that you'd instantly have the media screaming about "Stalinism" and "nationalising butcher's shops" so it's a total non-starter. [Post edited 12 Aug 22:55]
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| The Govt on High Streets on 17:16 - Aug 12 with 660 views | Plums |
| The Govt on High Streets on 13:36 - Aug 12 by urbanpenguin |
Housing is not the way to go I think. At least not in the way we develop and plan housing in this country at the moment.
There certainly is more room for housing in the mix in town centres and high streets, but it would be very sad to convert a high street into housing. The purpose and point of a high street as a civic place of coming together, collaboration, meeting, sharing, consuming, celebrating etc would be lost forever, where what we should be doing is reimagining what these things mean for a city in the 21st century that can build on a vernacular forged in the 17-20th centuries.
Also, most commercial-to-housing conversions are really tragic. I have seen permitted developments for flats with only one tiny window into a shared courtyard, or where people have to basically walk through a restaurants storage area to get to their apartment. Our planning system is in a fight to the bottom and this will see the worst of it.
There should be changes generally to Rates, to engaging communities and charities to use empty space (in fact, I oversee a charity that does this across the UK pretty well), and I think there should be a form of managed rent control that is structured to allow new businessowners over chains that rarely pay much UK tax. |
There should also be punitive, escalating rates for landlords who leave commercial premises empty for prolonged periods. I believe some countries have a compulsory purchase type of arrangement if high street premises are left to rot. |  |
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| The Govt on High Streets on 18:02 - Aug 12 with 615 views | urbanpenguin |
| The Govt on High Streets on 17:16 - Aug 12 by Plums |
There should also be punitive, escalating rates for landlords who leave commercial premises empty for prolonged periods. I believe some countries have a compulsory purchase type of arrangement if high street premises are left to rot. |
That's kind of what the High Street Auction principle that is set to come in is about. That a community can buy a unit that is useable but left empty.
What will happen, however, is that the threat of a banked property being lost to a community bid in two years will mean a landlord simply de-rates the building by removing plumbing, services, etc so it is not habitable and then is removed from potential auction. It is, in my view, a very stupid solution to the problem. | |
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| The Govt on High Streets on 18:05 - Aug 12 with 609 views | Lesta_Tractor |
| The Govt on High Streets on 13:42 - Aug 12 by SuperKieranMcKenna |
Business rates are a killer also. I know a few small businesses that closed down their premises and ran it from home because of the crippling costs.
Controversial for some, but council car parks are free in afternoons where I live, and the high st is thriving (not bookies and vape shops), with a great footfall. Otherwise people will just go to out of town retail. The parking cost in Ipswich and some other big towns is crippling and self defeating. |
The council here made some sort of foul up last summer and parking in town was free for a month, the town centre was heaving.
The parking charges have been reinstated and now the town is fairly quiet again. |  |
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