-
AllAnytime Fitness Gym Art Beer Of The Week Blog Bus Fares Bus Service Business Business Expo C2C Care Care Home Charity Children Christmas Cinema City Status Cliffs Pavilion Cliffs Pavilion Review Cocktail Recipes College Community Competition Construction Coronation Coronavirus Dannielle Emery Design Easter Education Emma Smith Employment Emsella Chair Environment Essex & Suffolk Water News Essex Police Essex Wildlife Trust News Events Family Fun Fashion Festival Film Finance Fitness Food Food & Drink Football Foulness Bike Ride Fresh Face Pillow Company Gardening General Election Hair & Beauty Halloween Harp Havens Hospice Havens Hospices Havens Hospices Health & Fitness Health & Beauty Health & Fitness Healthwatch Southend Historicaleigh History Holidays Housing Indian Indirock Jubilee Karen Harvey Conran Kids Kids Blogs Kids Competitions Kids Reviews Lazydays Festival Legal Legal Eagle Leigh Art Trail Leigh Folk Festival Leigh Library Leigh On Sea Finds Leigh Road Leigh Town Council Leigh Town Council Press Release Leigh on Sea Leigh on Sea Sounds Leigh on sea Folk Festival Leigh on sea Town Council Leigh on sea man breaks marathon record Leigh on sea news Lifestyle Livewell Southend Press Release LoS Shop London London Southend Airport Los Shop Marathon Melinda Giles Mortgage Angel blog Mortgages Motherofalloutings Mughal Dynasty Music My Mortgage Angel MyLoS NHS News News Newsletter Offers Outfit Of The Week Palace Theatre Parenting Parking Pets Picture Of The Week Pier Politics Press Release Press Release Southend City Council Professional Property Property Of The Week RSPCA Ray Morgan Re:loved Recipes Recycling Restaurant Restaurant Review Restaurants Review Roads Rotary Club Royal Hotel Royal Visit SAVS Schools Seafront Shopping Shows & Music Review Shows & Music Shows & Music Review Southend Southend Airport Southend Borough Council Press Release Southend City Bid News Southend City Council Southend City Council Press Release Southend City Council Press Release Southend Community Safety Southend Hospital News Southend In Sight Southend In Sight Southend In Sight Press Release Southend on Sea Sport The Mortgage Mum The One Love Project The Ship Hotel Theatre Theatre Blog Theatre Review Theatre review Transport Travel Veolia Village Green Volunteer Weddings Whats On c2c
New project seeks to fill empty shops and offices
Southend-on-Sea City Council is aiming to encourage the development and use of empty commercial buildings across the City and south Essex, by leading a project to provide zero interest loans to owners and developers.
The goal of 'No Use Empty South Essex' (NUE SE) is to turn between 10 and 15 empty buildings back into occupation across Southend, Basildon, Thurrock, Castle Point, Rochford and Brentwood.
This will be achieved by offering interest-free secured loans to owners and developers to support the development of alternative commercial uses, or create mixed-use commercial and residential properties.
Subject to an approval process, which will be managed by Kent County Council, loans are available in multiples of £25,000 up to a maximum value of £175,000, with the maximum loan term being three years. The application process will open next week.
Loans will be on a first come, first served basis and can be provided as ‘top up’ funding – so if a developer cannot secure all the funding that they need from a bank they can ‘top up’ their bank funding with a loan from NUE SE.
Emma Cooney, director of regeneration and growth for Southend-on-Sea City Council, said: “We hope to counteract the increasing numbers of empty premises by supporting owners and developers to bring them back into commercial use. Short-term zero-interest loans are proven very effective for businesses, and we look forward to making them available across Southend and south Essex.”
NUE SE will focus on town and city centres and secondary shopping areas, where high streets and other commercial areas have been significantly impacted by changing consumer demand and the after-effects of COVID.
No Use Empty South Essex mirrors the award-winning No Use Empty project originating from Kent County Council, who had their successful ‘Empty Property Initiative’ in full operation for several years.
Steve Grimshaw, strategic programme manager for Kent County Council NUE said: “It is encouraging to see other areas adopting Kent’s approach when it comes to tackling empty properties. NUE has a proven track record for delivery. Kent has been awarded a total of £3m from the Growing Places Fund allowing us to return more redundant commercial properties back into use, primarily in our coastal towns. We wish Southend and south Essex all the very best and are pleased that a new partnership has been formed”.
The project follows securing £2.2m of Government funding from the Growing Places Fund (£1m) and the Getting Building Fund (£1.2m).
This exciting new project will begin in Southend-on-Sea and across south Essex from 19 April 2022 and will run until March 2026. Further details and information on how to apply can be found on the NUE SE web page www.southend.gov.uk/nuese or by emailing the team on NoUseEmpty@southend.gov.uk
For examples from Kent, please visit their website.
ADD A COMMENT
Note: If comment section is not showing please log in to Facebook in another browser tab and refresh.