The government has signalled the next stage of its plans to regenerate the high street is by opening its own pop-up shop to encourage entrepreneurs. The shop was opened in the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) Victoria office building by Communities Secretary Eric Pickles just before Christmas.
The scheme, launched with the support of Start-Up Britain, is intended to showcase Britain’s brightest budding businesses over the coming year. Every fortnight six start-ups will move into the affordable retail space sharing costs and trialling ideas. All in all, 150 small businesses are expected to take advantage of the scheme.
Government ministers are promoting pop-up shops as a solution to the number of empty commercial properties in our town centres. They are asking the British Property Federation (BPF) to urge landlords to get involved in the project which will be rolled out to the 27 Portas Pilots and 330 Town Team partners in January. These towns will be given support to encourage more pop-ups on their high streets which will include the following benefits;
The government is providing loans to finance new entrepreneurs which they hope will lead to over 30,000 new businesses. In addition they are relaxing planning restrictions to enable landlords to alter the ways an empty property is used for up to two years.
Launching the scheme Eric Pickles said; “We are absolutely determined to support the high street and we know pop-ups are a great way to bring empty shops back to life and get new businesses going.
“So we thought why not open one right here in the department? It will also showcase how we can unleash more of our best and brightest young entrepreneurs onto the country’s high streets.”
According to Start-Up Britain 63 per cent of businesses not currently on the high street believe they would benefit from a high street presence. Of these 88 per cent listed funding as the primary obstacle.
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