Empty rhetoric over buildings

THE empty buildings across Yorkshire tell the sad story of how our towns and cities have been hit by recession and the credit drought. Long-planned developments, to create flats and offices, were mothballed from 2008 onwards as both public and private sectors grew anxious about the effects of a financial crisis that began in the US. Conventional wisdom said that the postponement of construction projects in the UK cut costs and prevented good money being thrown after bad. Now that could be proved wrong and, once again, it will be taxpayers left to pick up the bill, just as they did with the meltdown in the banking sector.

The potential for a multi-million pound bill is shown in Sheffield, where investors pulled out of ambitious schemes such as that for a new retail quarter. In Barnsley, the picture is similarly bleak. The council is paying more than £200,000 on a building with no use after staff moved into new £20m offices.

This is an intolerable waste of money at a time when resources are already stretched because of the coalition Government’s austerity drive.

Councils need to be more imaginative in their use of buildings. It is not enough to simply blame economic conditions and that is why Tim Cheetham, Barnsley Council’s cabinet development spokesman, is wrong to say the empty buildings are “not a concern”. With the drain on public resources continuing day by day, and the wider economy showing little sign of a sustained recovery, such an attitude shows little recognition of the crisis in public spending.

It is not just in South Yorkshire, however, that work on major developments has ground to a halt. The plans for Lumiere and the “kissing towers” in central Leeds and Bradford’s troubled regeneration programme are just a few examples of where projects have been mothballed or cancelled as banks and potential tenants remain nervous about investment.

As such, local authorities need to do more to bring shoppers back into their town centres, by making them look more attractive and making it easier and cheaper to open businesses. Otherwise the slump will become self-perpetuating, with low consumer spending leading to even more empty buildings and more public expense.