Further investment needed in Kidderminster town centre

28/29 Worcester Street, Kidderminster shows signs of investment and improvement following the sale of the property at the end of last year, and it is good to see an important building in Worcester Street now being worked upon.

We are now in the final stage of negotiating the sale on the empty shop and premises in Oxford Street and all the office accommodation above, previously occupied by Wyre Forest Community Housing and MFG Solicitors.

In this case a number of perspective purchasers from throughout the West Midlands have viewed the property, and it is hoped that negotiations will soon be completed for a sale of the property, with the perspective purchaser looking at changing redundant office accommodation into flats.

This major development will inject new life into the town centre, and it is good to see that companies are looking at Kidderminster in a positive way, such that this area of town will start to enter a new phase. It is hoped that local authority support will continue for such developments, and that town planners will look at schemes such as this as being the way forward for redundant buildings.

There has been much debate recently regarding the payment of non-domestic rates on empty commercial and how unfair this can be for owners, through no fault of their own are left with properties for which there are on occupiers.

The sensible government incentive would be for non-domestic rates not to be charged on empty properties in the areas where the percentage of unoccupancy, such as seen in Kidderminster town centre is through no fault of the owners, but due to the economic downturn and changes in retailing brought about through the creation of retail parks and increased competition from the internet.

On a brighter side, the last month has seen further improvements in level of enquiry for other types of commercial property throughout the Wyre Forest area.

With major retailers now open on Hoo Farm Industrial Estate, this has given the Worcester Road area a boost. But properties previously occupied either as a cash and carry or storage and distribution centre are now retail, and what was for many years an industrial estate is now becoming a more mixed use development on the edge of town, again showing that out of town retailing is still growing.

The only positive outcome of this could be that industrial units on the estate will perhaps become more popular with companies hoping to sell their own manufactured goods from their premises, and it will be interesting to see if the introduction of retailing on Hoo Farm does have this effect.

The general improvement in the economic situation nationally is showing itself locally, although the overall recovery from the recession is slow, and as far as commercial property is concerned will take a longer time before business levels return to those seen before the banking crisis.

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