Nottingham City Council have ambitious plans to slash number of empty shops

Last year a national survey claimed 30% of stores in the city were empty, making Nottingham worse than any other large town or city in the country. The council has now set up a task force which plans to assess every empty shop in the city and use £100,000 of Government cash to bring them up to scratch and encourage tenancy.

External grants will also be sought for bigger projects, with the aim of reducing the number of empty shops by two thirds.

Councillor Nick McDonald, the city's portfolio holder for jobs, skills and business, said: "This problem won't be resolved by simple market forces, we need a clear strategy and clear focus."

Mr McDonald said the plans include encouraging more "pop-up shops", where people just rent a shop for a short period of time to try a new business idea.

Read the story from thisisnottingham.co.uk, here

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