Hovel Lovin’!?

Welcome to Hug a Hovel!

Hug a Hovel is a project being run by SNAG and EN4M.  It aims to make a connection between the City’s vacant and blighted buildings and the need for operations space for Manchester’s grass-roots groups; spaces which are more affordable, more flexible, more hugged.

Hug a Hovel hopes to solve the environmental, social and economic problems that vacant and blighted buildings present by restoring them to use by grass-roots groups – essentially solving two distinct problems with one solution.

To sit back and allow the City’s empty buildings to crumble and rot would be a travesty.  We believe that there is no better time to address the situation.  Times are hard – financially as well as environmentally – and action is needed to remedy the situation.

The Hug a Hovel Team will be working with Manchester City Council over the coming months to work out how best to set up a system to allow this to happen.  In the meantime we need you!

We have had a lot of interest from grass-roots groups looking for affordable space to use as offices, meeting rooms, exhibition venues, community cafes etc…which is why Hug a Hovel was came to be.  But we just know there are many more groups which need space too.  If so please get in touch.

Best Wishes, Tim.

schools and hovels

English Heritage have produced an information booklet about how schools pupils can engage in learning about empty buildings whilst working on creative projects to produce solutions to bringing them back into use.  ‘New uses for Empty Buildings – Citizenship and the Historic Environment’ contains a series of case studies showing teachers how they and their pupils can explore issues about the conservation of their local historic environment to address the National Curriculum requirements for the teaching of citizenship.

English Heritage also provide funding for repairing empty buildings which can be seen here.

Supporting Landlords

Commercial landlords have a strong interest in maintaining the vitality of town centres,
as thriving towns provide the best security for their investment. Landlords are obviously
keen to let empty shops on a normal commercial footing at the earliest opportunity,
but the current economic conditions can make that difficult in some places.

Offering temporary occupation on a non-commercial basis may benefit landlords, and others, until there is an upturn in the market.

To enable this to happen more often, landlords need to be assured that there is a proper legal basis for any temporary uses, that their property will be kept in good condition, and that they will be able to take the empty premises back as soon as there is a prospect of a commercial letting.

To help minimise the cost of setting up such arrangements, we will provide specimen legal documents that landlords can use for temporary occupiers. And we will continue to work with commercial property organisations to understand the
difficulties preventing more temporary uses, and to promote vibrant town centres.

Change of Use Powers

Temporary uses of vacant premises may require planning or other consents, for example,
listed building or conservation area consent. Councils, of course, need to weigh up the
benefits of proposed changes, but it is important that they are able to respond flexibly to
changing circumstances in their town centres, where appropriate.
Local planning authorities can use Local Development Orders (LDOs) to allow for changes
of use that would otherwise require planning permission. There is a wide range of
potential uses for LDOs – in a town centre, they could allow changes from shops to banks,
building societies, clinics, day centres, art galleries, or museums.
Government however, knows that councils have shown limited interest in LDOs, possibly because
there are a number of restrictions and approvals that apply to them.  Government wants to ensure
that LDOs are easier to use, and will therefore bring forward, by June 2009, provisions in
the Planning Act 2008 that will remove the requirement that LDOs be linked with policies
in local development plans – this should allow local planning authorities to implement
LDOs with greater speed and flexibility, without requiring changes to their local
development plans.
Government  is also keen to hear more from local councils about how they might make better
use of LDOs. Working through the Planning Advisory Service (PAS), they are looking at
ways in which LDOs might be used more effectively – this is well advanced and should
be available in April. Also working through PAS, they intend to provide around £15,000
to each of four local authorities to help them to develop LDOs.

Empty Shops

As part of the Hug a Hovel campaign, we’re looking into utilising the empty space caused by the closure of retail units in the city.  The idea is to make this space available to not-for-profit organisations and community groups to display in creative ways their campaigns and initiatives. Communities Secretary Hazel Blears has said that temporarily converting empty shops into social enterprises, local art displays or learning centres will help innovative communities prevent high streets declining.

Hug A Hovel has already received interest from Community Groups wishing to use empty retail space to carry their campaign messages, including Transition City Manchester, Keep Cholrton Interesting, Manchester City Creatives and Learning, Skills and Education Network.
Ms Blears is chaired a seminar in Stockport with Culture Secretary Andy Burnham on tackling ‘recession in the high street’ with councils, business leaders, landlords and town centre managers.

The Government is also announcing new measures and up to £3m to help communities find creative ways to reduce the negative impact empty shops have on the high street – vital for town centre and business confidence.  The new provisions including special planning application waivers, standard interim-use leases, and temporarily leasing shops to councils will allow empty shops to get makeovers for use as cultural, community or learning services.

Many successful start-up businesses have begun this way.  For example Neal’s Yard Remedies, the international cosmetics company, was started by Romy Fraser in a disused warehouse in Covent Garden in 1981.

These measures are being published in a practical guide Looking after our Town Centres identifies the best ways and steps communities can take to keep town centres thriving.

The Government will introduce new rules soon to give existing shops that serve the community such as local post offices and pubs extra protections. These steps are part of wider action to help business during the downturn.

Culture Secretary Andy Burnham said:

“Culture and creativity are part of the answer to tough economic times. Liverpool’s success as European Capital of Culture showed what culture can do to build people and places and create a sense of confidence and pride. I believe that, now more than ever, we should play to our strengths as a creative nation.

Nobody wants to see town centres fade and decay. By transforming otherwise empty town centre premises into hubs for culture and creativity, we can regenerate both the physical space itself and the hope and ambition of all those that have a stake in them. And in the longer term, by giving people the opportunity to develop we stand a good chance of creating something of lasting benefit, not just for those individuals but also for our economy as we move out of this recession.”

Skills Secretary John Denham added:

“We want to make sure that our town and city centres continue to be vibrant and at the heart of our communities. In our recent White Paper, the ‘Learning Revolution’ Government laid out how it will continue to support informal adult learning which we know has benefits beyond the pleasure of learning in its self.

“We don’t want to see space such as unused shops on our high streets go to waste, especially when we know that people can put that space to good use for meeting up and learning for fun. Today’s revival plan will give our communities the tools they need to reinvigorate unused space”.
If your community group would like to get involved in Hug a Hovel and/or displaying your campaign information in empty shops please get in touch.

Best Wishes, Tim

New Guidance for Town Centres

The Department of Communities and Local Government has produced a new guide on town centre management.  This short guide is for town centre managers and their local partners (that means you).  It offers practical help in setting out how we can work together to make sure that our town centres reach their full potential, even in tough times, so that we can all enjoy, and be proud of, the centres of our great towns.

But it also looks further ahead.  It is vital that those involved in town centres – planners, service managers, businesses, local groups and communities – develop a clear vision, and actively plan to take advantage of new opportunities when the recovery begins.

Looking After Our Town Centres can be viewed here.