The vacant shop scheme is to be extended to the Leigh Park shopping precinct to enhance the offer to shoppers in the area.
Following the recent success of the Waterlooville scheme, the Leader of Havant Borough Council, Councillor Alex Rennie announced the extension at last night's Cabinet meeting.
Helping to tackle the issues and additional pressures Park Parade and the Greywell shopping centre are facing, Havant Borough Council will create a long-term solution to the vacancy rates by extending the vacant shop grant scheme.
The main shopping precinct in Leigh Park currently has 12 vacant units, which represents around 14% of all the shops in that area. Some of these are large units that have been empty for some time.
Retail, leisure, hospitality, arts and culture, as well as health providers, will be encouraged to express their interest in gaining grants for capital works to fit out the vacant shops.
Councillor Alex Rennie, Leader of Havant Borough Council “We recently promoted a vacant shop scheme for Waterlooville of which we had 30 applicants demonstrating that there was a call for this type of support to stimulate growth.”
“I am announcing a similar initiative for the Leigh Park Shopping Centre whereby we will be inviting applications from new businesses to the area, or for existing businesses who wish to expand into larger premises.
I’m looking forward to seeing applications come forward and it shows our commitment to delivering for Leigh Park."
Currently, 20% of all the retail units within the Leigh Park shopping area are related to hair and beauty services.