A year after opening a £2 million business centre, Ashfield District Council in Nottinghamshire admits to difficulties in filling the majority of its office units. Despite the success of Makerspace and Inspire, two key occupants providing workshops and training respectively, the council is actively seeking to attract more businesses to the former DWP offices.
A Nottinghamshire council has admitted facing 'problems' since opening a £2 million business centre with most of the office units remaining empty. Ashfield District Council completed the renovation of former DWP offices in Sutton towards the end of 2022. A year on, the council says that just two of the 14 office units were occupied before Christmas. Three more businesses have moved in after Christmas, yet the majority of the units remain empty.
The main occupants of the building are Makerspace and Inspire, with the former comprising a workshop that can be used as a co-working space featuring state-of-the-art equipment. Inspire offers courses and traineeships for young people in areas ranging from construction to social care. Despite the success of those two businesses, Ashfield District Council's leader says more needs to be done to fill the rest of the building. Councillor Jason Zadrozny said: 'There's been a couple of problems. 'We've put a lot of focus into the big part of the building, so the majority of the building has gone to Inspire and to the Makerspace and we've been working heavily on that part. One of the other things is that we had a really good town centre manager who came to retirement, so we had a gap for a month or two before Christmas and we've just got a new town centre manager who is really good.' The council has confirmed that it spent £2,262,533 altogether on High Pavement House, funded through the government's future high streets grant. At the time of opening the site, the council said that 'to help businesses flourish', it was offering grants to cover the first three months of rent. Again funded by government grants, the council said its rent relief payments would range from £250 to £960 depending on the size of the unit. The council says it has given out such grants to four businesses, but will not say how much rent relief it has given overall, saying this is 'commercially sensitive'. The former DWP building was previously renovated in 2019 by a private investor but following the pandemic, the building was left empty until 2022. The Makerspace facility now houses equipment ranging from 3D printers and lasers and other features of High Pavement House include a podcast studio and kitchen facilities. An open evening is being hosted on January 28 at the site from 2pm until 6pm to try and spread awareness about the available units, with Councillor Zadrozny adding: 'The ground floor is 50% Makerspace and 50% Inspire and then the top floor is about 60% Inspire and 30% are the other business units. 'As a proportion of the whole building, it's quite a small proportion, but it's obviously something we want to do. We want to make sure people know that there is a facility and get the units up to occupancy.
BUSINESS CENTRE EMPTY UNITS ASHFIELD DISTRICT COUNCIL NOTTINGHAMSHIRE MAKERSPACE INSPIRE GOVERNMENT GRANTS RENT RELIEF
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