'Shop rents are killing us'

“What no one is recognising is that the majority of agents are all based out of town. The landlords sit in their glass towers in london and have no idea what the situation is like in the 'provinces'. Now, with even the pound shops closing it would seem to make sense to reduce rents even if its just written into an agreement for the short term until the market picks up again. the other point is the owners of empty properties still have to pay out for them, rates become due after two months. Maybe a way forward is to offer to pay a rent equivalent to the landlords outlay for an empty premises. That way he might not be making anything but he will by having a full shop help to regenerate the town in the hope he may get a tenant who can afford to pay rent if its looking more like a place with a good economy. alternatively address the poverty here properly and who knows what social entrepreneurs would be on the up, its people with money to spend who make an economy. Equally the council should play their part by not giving over communtity buildings to commercial businesses, who can afford the rents elsewhere. Look at that new wine bar at the bottom of town, they are paying hardly any rent but have splashed out huge amounts on the redecoration. maybe they would have been better off paying the rent on the hoggs head putting that space back into use, spending less on redecoration and letting some kind of community enterprise use the old town hall.”

“I am not suprised that the commercial agents were not interested, as it is those agents that set the rents on the commercial properties in Torquay and they act for the landlords, taking a percentage in fees of the final rent, therefore the higher the rent the higher their fees, no wonder they were not interested.

Its about time something was done to stop them pushing the rents up on these properties, and allowing the traders to make a decent living, in a minute there will be landlords going bankrupt because they can't afford to pay the commercial mortgages on their premises as they don't have the tenents paying the extortionate rents.”

“Tim the London Exile, we are not to blame. Madness to suggest we are.

Baggins of Hove, yes, we have a mayor, but he doesn't care as he's bragging about parking meter takings of £15000 a week.

Optimistic of torquay, the down turn is a recession. It won't be short lived, even if there is a "recovery", areas which won't be reported on will still be suffering. We are very likely going to be one of those areas, if you compare the appearance of our seafront, buildings and services, to those of other tourist resorts, we're a Blackpool without an amusement park, tower and trams.

I have little hope left for Torbay, as we're worse off now than 10 years ago for jobs, services and general appearance of the area.”

“I seem to have more money due to the recession, My food, fuel and even rent bills have dropped and my wage has stayed the same. Im know that not everyone is as fortunate in this respect but there is still money to be spent, unfortunately there are fewer places to spend it.”

“It's pretty straightforward - people are tightening their belts and doing a lot more window shopping and a lot less spending.

Businesses can't afford the risk of renting an expensive town centre shop when shoppers are so reluctant to part with their cash, so no wonder so many places remain empty.

If parking were free, it may bring more numbers into the towns, but if they don't have any money to spend in the first place, then I don't see how it can help.

We just have to ride it out and hope this downturn is only short-lived.”

“Treble rates on shops that remain empty due to non-downwardly-negeotiable rents.

You've got a Mayor there haven't you? Can't he bite?”

“It¿s ok talking about the greed of Landlords but we all have to remember that it was a boom in consumer spending that allowed landlords to charge high rents in the first place, so to a certain extent we are all to blame. Rents will fall but it will take a few months as current rents are a reflection of the capital value of the building, landlords will recognise the property is overvalued and rental expectation will be reduced. There are however, steps Torbay could take to help themselves in the meantime to encourage business in the town centres;

a) Temporary removal of stringent planning regulations and fee holidays (within reason) to reduce the cost of establishing a business
b) Temporary suspension or reduction of parking fees to increase footfall in the town centre
c) Lobbying the government for a reduction in Business Rates to make Torbay an ¿Enterprise Zone¿ to encourage companies to invest.
d) National press coverage highlighting the low cost base of the bay the beautiful environment and the quality of life to encourage relocation of companies with more sustainable jobs.

In regard to point C Torbay would probably have a good chance due to the poor transport links to the rest of the country and the fact that the average wage is less than the national average.

Mind you we could always take the view of the current administration, sit on our hands and say there is nothing we can do!”

“am i coming on holiday this year to torquay. a big no... why PARKING CHARGES. traffic wardens,,...has the people running the town gone mad????????jf”

“after having shops intorquay for 18 years i am amazed the greedy landlords have`nt reduced the rents, one only has to look at the centre of town and torquay market to see a ghost town.i pity the poor retailers who never had the sense to see the downtown, and the greedy banks high charges,they are out to destroy one third of all retailers inthe bay. the blame of course for all this problems is greedy banks and so called professionals that has got the area in a mess, one only has to go back years to see the bay starved of investment, one has to look at sedgefield, beautiful area, mr blairs ex constinuancy to see where all the money has gone jf”

“I have been looking at commercial properties in Torbay for that last few years as I would like to open a new business, but have found that the rental costs and lease terms just make it way too a big a risk. Even now landlords seem to have their heads stuck in the sand and are not being flexible which is why many retailers are getting out. There will be a backlash and I predict that some commercial properties will be going for a song in about 9 months times but by then who would want to open a business in ghost town?”