Council leaders have vowed to “use every tool” to reverse the decline of County Durham high streets and improve town centres, writes Local Democracy Reporter, Bill Edgar.
Latest plans to introduce new enforcement measures to deal with shuttered shops in Bishop Auckland and Stanley have been backed by Durham County Council cabinet members.
The local authority said empty shops in the two town centres could be filled by autumn through a new auction process.
The High Street Rental Auction (HSRA) scheme was introduced by the government to tackle persistent vacant units across the country. It allows authorities to undertake an auction, offering a lease of up to five years, on a privately owned property, if other attempts to engage and work proactively with a landlord have failed.
Karen Allison, cabinet member for leisure, tourism and high street, said: “Our existing approach to tackling vacancies through the vulnerable buildings program, business support, and targeted enforcement remains essential.
“However, vacancy levels in some of our towns continue to rise, and we must use every tool available to us.”
Cabinet members were told that vacancy levels remain a “significant challenge” for the council and communities. As of February 2026, the countywide average stands at 22.1 per cent, considerably above the national average of 13.8 per cent.
Bishop Auckland’s vacancy rate has reduced slightly to 33.9 per cent due to ongoing regeneration activity, but it remains one of the highest in the country.
And in Stanley, vacancy rates continue to rise, with several prominent properties remaining empty for more than 12 months.
Cllr Allison added: “The consultation has shown that local businesses and communities want us to take a more proactive approach to bringing empty properties back into use. HSRA powers give us an additional mechanism to do that, particularly where voluntary engagement has not been successful.
“Piloting HSRA in Bishop Auckland and Stanley will allow us to test the process, understand the resource requirements, and evaluate whether this approach can support our wider ambition to revitalise our high streets.”
Once the designated HSRA areas are approved, the authority is required to survey the vacant properties within each boundary to understand if they are suitable for auction, establish appropriate types of use for each property and assess any works a landlord may need to undertake to meet a minimum standard.
Durham County Council said preparation work on the next stage of the HSRA process will take around 22 weeks, with the first auction properties to be let through the process expected to be occupied in autumn this year.
Bill Edgar
Reporter for the Local Democracy Reporter Service.
Bishop Auckland's local community newspaper.
Bishop has gone get over it
Lots of lovely independent traders in bishop
Ffs, people don’t want town centres, the reason they are dead is because we stopped using them, let go and move on.
Money goes one way in Bishop from the County Council and we all know where????.