Council bids to fill empty shops through auctions
BBCEmpty shops in two town centres could be be filled by auctioning off their leases.
Durham County Council is planning to use new powers to lease empty properties for up to five years in Stanley and Bishop Auckland.
The powers are available through the national High Street Rental Auctions scheme (HSRA), which allows properties to be let out if efforts to work with their landlords have failed.
Cabinet member for leisure and tourism Karen Allison said the plans were part of the council's efforts to revitalise High Streets across the county.
"We are already doing all we can to work proactively with landlords to achieve this, but these HSRA powers provide us with an additional tool to speed up the recovery of town centres," she said.
HSRA was introduced by the government in its Levelling Up and Regeneration Act in 2023 to tackle persistent vacant units in town centres.
Both towns have been selected as they have experienced the largest increase in vacancy rates in County Durham, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
Bishop Auckland's rate increased by 3.25%, while Stanley's grew by 3.2%.
In Stanley, the area set to be covered by the HSRA includes the full length of Front Street, Royal Road and the top of Station Road.
Once the HSRA areas are approved, the council must survey the vacant properties to understand if they are suitable for auction, establish appropriate types of use for them and assess any maintenance work required.
The council said preparation work on the next stage of the HSRA process would take about 22 weeks and the first properties were set to be occupied by in the autumn this year.
