BCP Council to run pilot program to save high streets

BCP (Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole) Council is piloting a program known as HRSA (High Street rental auction), this program would allow local authorities to force vacant lots on high streets to go to auction, in turn preventing the droves of empty shops that have become a somewhat common sight in Britains seaside towns.

With the pre Budget report becoming available to the public later its a good time to discuss what the local authorities could be doing this year and how it could effect us.

Cllr Rich Herret said “Cash Poor, Network Rich” referring to how the BCP was able to fund the HSRA and other projects it was working on, he said that many similar projects were dealt with by the economic development team, using “self funding” and “a kind of shared prosperity fund”.

“a lot of their work is around networking and connecting people”, “but most of our money goes to statutory services”, he went on to say “thats the reality of our financial situation.”

Making a major change like the HSRA to the high street rental climate in a could lead to significant impact on the economy of a town like Bournemouth, but maybe the revitalisation of the high street is what it needs.

On the other hand Rich also said “Bournemouth itself is up 12.5% year on year, and its core shopping areas are up 58% in terms of footfall in that period”

With Bournemouth growing but “not without it’s problems”, the decisions made by the council could be in a position to make massive change, and some could say that they have already.

Whilst not clear if they’ve been let due to the HSRA, according to Rich “the new House of Fraser building still in preparation to be commercial units are pre let, the WHSmith building is being split into units and one is pre let and the old Superdrug building is being split and two of the units have been pre let”.

With changes like this towards a better high street actively happening its hard to disagree with what Rich said “Bournemouth is not without its issues, but none of them are unique to Bournemouth”.

One this that has sparked the recent debate into the Viability of Bournemouth for businesses was the allegations made by OnBuy towards Bournemouth as a town, in response to these allegations Rich said “I think comparing some of those things to the cities we’re compared to is just a disproportionate representation of where were at”.

Rich also understands that some landlords are not in a position to rent their property and are struggling “this gives us (the council) a big stick in our pocket, that we would rather not use, we would prefer to work with landlords to find solutions”

Specifically what this project would allow the local authority to do is to force any property that has been vacant for 365 days out of the last two years to go to auction and be available to let to the highest bidder, whether that turns out be a large or small business.

Will these changes be enough to bring Bournemouth s High street back to what it was, or Will more need to be done. The pre budget report will be our first clue but after that only time will tell.