Could power to rent empty shops help high streets?

Image caption, Some of St Austell's empty shop units could be eligible for rental auctions

New funding and powers to allow councils to fill empty high street shops could make a big difference, a Cornish MP has said.

The government has allocated £10m for local authorities to run rental auctions on shop units which have been vacant for more than a yea.

Noah Law, Labour MP for St Austell and Newquay, said it could be a "powerful tool" in efforts to rejuvenate town centres.

However, a town councillor has warned the scheme is limited in its scope as it only applies to empty units for rent and not those for sale.

The auction scheme is part of a wider government package to bring boarded-up and derelict buildings back to life and preserve community assets such as pubs and sport clubs.

The government said the £210m package would be followed by a new high streets strategy later this year.

Rental auctions would empower local councils to take over the process of finding a tenant and potentially mean landlords are forced to accept a lower rent, it said.

Image caption, Noah Law said rental auctions could help in towns like St Austell

Law said it would help places like the Cornish town of St Austell which had a 30% vacancy rate.

"People are really keen to see their local authorities take this problem by the horns so that we can definitely get them occupied," he said.

"The high street is still the very beating heart of our communities and I hope to see it remain that way.

"That £10m will go quite a long way towards getting some of these processes off the ground. So I'm quite optimistic about this."

Image caption, Ellie Allen said rental auctions would not have much impact in Redruth

However, supporters of rental auctions in Redruth said they had explored the idea there but found restraints meant it had little scope to improve things.

Ellie Allen, an Independent town councillor, said "For Redruth, the impact would be fairly limited.

"A lot of the buildings are for sale, not for rent and the conditions are they have to be on the open [rental] market for 12 months beforehand."

She said funding to improve town centres should be devolved to local communities to decide how to spend the money in their areas.

"We're different from Manchester or Liverpool or smaller towns up north," she said.

"It's frustrating when there are rules made and boundaries set that don't fit this circumstance.

"It would be nice if you could come up with a great plan to use the money that you think is the best for your town and just crack on," she added.

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External linksMinistry of Housing, Communities & Local Government