An Investigation of the Nature of Vacant Commercial and Industrial Property

Commercial and industrial floorspace statistics covering England at the local authority district level have been published for the past four years. These statistics provide annual snapshots of the quantity, location and type of non-domestic building stock across the country. Longitudinal analysis, although restricted to a short time-frame, can tell us about changes in land use activity and illustrate how the stock of commercial and industrial floorspace is slowly increasing. What these statistics do not reveal is whether the stock is in use or vacant. Growing interest in the redevelopment and re-use of ‘brownfield ’ land (which, it is assumed, includes ‘brown’ buildings), means that the ability to identify stock that is vacant, particularly for long periods of time, is of great importance to land use policy makers and developers. This paper reports the results of a pilot study to collect data on vacant commercial and industrial floorspace in Leeds over a four-year period. Using data collected and maintained by central and local government for property taxation purposes, sub-building information on vacancy was compiled and statistics produced that were designed to nest within the Commercial and Industrial Floorspace Statistics that are currently available. This paper reports the results of the pilot study, investigates the nature of the vacant stock in terms of building type, land use and age and reports significan