town: They might be failing assets in town centres where shop vacancies are high, according to The Guardian. Councils are going in to revitalise those sites, bringing in residential above or repurposing vacant units with something other than retail. Local authorities have spent a record 775m buying shopping centres over the past three years, and are expected to outlay a further 230m next year according to research from retail property body Revo and property advisory firm Lambert Smith Hampton LSH . Steve Norris, head of planning, development and regeneration at LSH, said investment had surged since 2016 and the current levels could be just the tip of the iceberg . A lot of shopping centres are being bought for regeneration, he said. One in five shopping centres that have changed hands since 2016 have been acquired by local authorities that have ramped up investment as private sector spending has dived by 1.85bn. But low-cost funding available from the public works loan board has allowed councils to bid higher sums for property and enjoy better returns on investment than private funds. Financial investors have fled as more than 16 shops a day close their doors, squeezed out by the rise of online shopping and increased costs from business rates, wages and the fall in the value of the pound.
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