With figures from the British Retail Consortium confirming that over 10% of town centre shops are empty, the party aims to enable councils to give empty high street shops to start-ups, co-operative businesses and community projects.
The measure would apply to property left vacant for 12 months. Labour says the policy would have no impact on the ownership of the property. Local authorities in England and Wales can currently use empty dwelling management orders as a legal device to put an unoccupied property back into use as housing. Labour would adopt a similar approach to empty high street properties, enabling councils to take over the management of the properties. They will then be able to rent it out to co-ops and community projects for free or at reduced rates.
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