Empty Shops Could Be Forced To Auction Under New Proposals

Bexhill residents will be asked to have a say on council powers which could see landlords forced to put long-term empty shops to auction.

On Monday (September 14), Rother District Council’s cabinet agreed to consult on proposals to potentially designate part of Bexhill’s town centre as a High Street Rental Auctions (HSRA) area.

If it were to make this designation, the council would gain the power to ‘require’ landlords of persistently-vacant commercial properties within the area to rent out their properties through auctioned leases.

During the meeting, regeneration officer Thomas Fitzgerald told councillors how other authorities had seen results by simply beginning this process.

He said: “Looking at some of the other early adopters, most of the experiences so far have been that, by the process of going through designation and pre any actual auction occurring … that the activity itself has led to a number of vacant properties becoming let.

“The movement towards designation and some initial notices has spurred the landlords to maybe take some action.”

Before any auction could take place, a council would need to serve a landlord with a notice — similar to an enforcement or improvement notice. A landlord would then have the opportunity to appeal before any auction took place.

Mr Fitzgerald said he was not aware of any council having yet used the powers, which were only introduced recently, to hold an auction.

A cabinet report says the council recently commissioned an audit of vacant units in Bexhill Town Centre. It covered 439 commercial units in Bexhill town centre, identifying 384 occupied and 55 vacant.

The report says this equates to an overall vacancy rate of 12.5 per cent, which is slightly lower than the national average. It also describes the vacancies as being “clearly clustered”, with the greatest percentage in London Road.

Not all of the streets which were audited would be included in the proposed designation area.

The report says not all of the vacant units would qualify for auction, as the government requires such units to be either unoccupied for 365 days continuously or for at least 366 days within a 24-month period.

The consultation will seek views on designating the following parts of Bexhill: Albany Road; Albert Road; Buckhurst Road; Clifford Road; Cranfield Road; Devonshire Road; Endwell Road; Eversley Road; Linden Road; London Road; Marina; Parkhurst Road; Sackville Road; Sea Road; St Leonards Road; Station Road; Town Hall Square; Western Road; Wickham Avenue; and Wilton Road.