Empty shops given new life

The number of empty shops on high streets is growing.  The Meanwhile project sees this as an opportunity rather than a tragedy.  Set up by the Asset Transfer Unit, Meanwhile is promoting the use of empty shops for community purposes.  Looked at in this way, empty shops can become excellent centres for community activities, art exhibitions or other valuable and enriching uses.

The current issue of  New Start magazine is covering this here:

http://www.newstartmag.co.uk/news/article/empty-shops-given-new-lease-of-life-by-meanwhile

Local Councils and Asset Transfer

Interesting article in last week’s Third Sector magazine about the challenges and difficulties in local councils transfering under-used buildings to third sector organisations.  The Audit Commission report  Room for Improvement found that barriers included “councils’ perception that voluntary organisations lacked the management capacity to operate assets. Some councils also resisted transferring assets to the sector because they felt they needed to get as much money as possible for them, the commission found.”

The article is here:  http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/News/Article/920939/Partnership-best-way/ but you might have to register with the site to see the full text.