February 2023 - Cover image here - Toby Lloyd - Re-creating the platoons of place

The economics of vacant property Concern for the declining high street is usually focused on the social impacts: the loss of neighbourly interaction, the undermining of local identity and ‘pride of place’, the social and cultural exclusion of places and people left behind. [...] The debate on the economics of high street decline tend to focus on the drivers of retail demand – particularly the move to online shopping – and the impacts of the business rate system. [...] The response to the consultation cited concerns that “the impact on property owners would be more restrictive, especially on the sale price” and decided that the “disadvantages outweigh the potential to provide additional benefits to communities.”21 Instead, the Localism Act 2011 created the Right to Bid, a far weaker power than the Scottish Community Right to Buy that gives community organisation. [...] The owner of a registered ACV must inform the authority if they want to sell the property, at which point the community organisation that nominated the property as an ACV can call on the local authority to trigger a moratorium period, during which the owner cannot sell the property. [...] Improving the registration of Assets of Community Value Legislation (such as the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill currently before Parliament, or a new Bill) should widen the scope of the Assets of Community Value registration process and address the technical flaws and loopholes in the existing and the resulting Community Right to Bid.