Aberdeen's High Street Turnaround: Can Empty Shops Be Rescued?

A Street in Decline

Aberdeen's Union Street, once known as the Granite Mile and a thriving retail destination during the North Sea oil boom, now sits partially abandoned. The closure of Marks & Spencer—which had occupied its flagship store for 80 years—symbolizes a broader crisis affecting high streets across Britain. Across the country, one in eight commercial properties on high streets stand vacant, a stubbornly persistent problem that shows no sign of improving through market forces alone. The decline accelerated when a shopping centre opened adjacent to the railway station in 2009, pulling customers away from the traditional city center. By late 2022, residents had largely given up on Union Street, with empty storefronts and boarded-up windows creating a dispiriting landscape that discouraged further investment and encouraged anti-social behavior.

The Structural Challenge

The obstacles to reviving high streets run deep. Fractured ownership is a critical problem—shops and buildings are often controlled by dozens of different landlords operating through complex corporate structures or offshore entities, each pursuing separate interests and slowing coordinated regeneration efforts. Beyond ownership complications, many units require expensive modernization, while the cost of operating a high street business has climbed sharply due to rising employment costs and business rates. The most fundamental challenge, however, is structural: shopping and services have migrated online, and retail experts believe two-thirds of town center specialists think there is still between 20 and 40 percent too much retail space nationally. Footfall has experienced long-term decline, and this shift away from physical retail has yet to fully play out.

Aberdeen's Coordinated Response

Instead of accepting decline, Aberdeen adopted an unusually hands-on, community-driven approach. Our Union Street, a coalition formed after an emergency civic summit, enlisted business leaders, letting agents, council officials, volunteers, and a former FTSE 100 CEO named Bob Keiller working without compensation. The group conducted a comprehensive audit of every property, tracking absent landlords and logging vacancies. Volunteers cleaned and painted empty storefronts to improve their appeal, and the council established a website listing all available units alongside financial incentives—including fit-out grants for new businesses and two-year business rate discounts. The results have been measurable: in 2023, 57 of 198 units were empty; as of the article's writing, 33 have been filled with 14 more in the process of being let. However, the effort resembles a perpetual battle—20 additional units have become vacant since the initiative began, though Keiller argues they are filling vacancies faster than new ones emerge.

Rethinking What High Streets Are For

City leaders increasingly recognize that simply filling retail spaces is insufficient. Politicians across the country, including those focused on urban regeneration policy, now argue that town centers must become destinations for experiences rather than just shopping. Aberdeen is pursuing this shift aggressively, investing tens of millions in an indoor food and drink market and a major seafront redevelopment. The converted BHS building will serve as an entrance plaza for the new market, and pavements are being widened to create more pleasant public spaces. The broader recognition is that modern town centers need residential populations, office space for remote workers, and services that cannot be delivered online—including healthcare facilities that could serve aging populations. This represents a fundamental rethink of what town centers should become in an era of e-commerce dominance.

Policy Tools and Broader Lessons

English councils have gained new enforcement powers to combat vacancy. They can now compel property owners to offer empty commercial units that have been vacant for at least a year through High Street Rental Auctions, effectively forcing landlords to let space or lose control of it. This policy, though newly implemented, is already showing results—Bassetlaw Council in Nottinghamshire reports that over 30 shops have been let or placed under offer as a result. Iain Nicholson, who has audited over 1,000 empty units nationally through his Vacant Shops Academy, found that more than half lacked active letting agent representation, highlighting how many properties are simply abandoned rather than genuinely unavailable. He emphasizes that empty shops cannot be filled by market mechanisms alone; towns need to attract diverse occupiers including arts organizations, leisure facilities, health services, and community spaces. Nicholson specifically praised Aberdeen's joined-up approach and willingness to overcome institutional differences, noting this coordinated mindset remains rare across Britain.

The Funding Question

Money remains the ultimate constraint on revival efforts. Aberdeen's new food and drink market alone costs £40 million, funded through council resources and the UK Levelling Up Fund. Similar regeneration schemes in other towns struggle to secure comparable financing, making Aberdeen's investment scale unusual. The question facing smaller cities and towns is whether comparable resources can be mobilized through national policy or if high street revival will remain limited to places with sufficient local wealth and political commitment. Expert consensus suggests that high streets must fundamentally transform or face continued decline, but transformation requires sustained funding, coordinated governance, and a shift away from pure retail toward mixed-use destinations serving community needs.