Rental auctions could soon be used against persistently empty shops in four Cumbrian town centres after Westmorland and Furness Council’s Cabinet agreed to progress a pilot on Tuesday 10 November 2026. The decision covers designated areas in Barrow, Kendal, Penrith and Ulverston, where the council hopes to return long-vacant commercial premises to active use. It is approval to move the pilot forward, not confirmation that any particular shop has been seized or leased.
The authority’s 10 November announcement says a further 28-day consultation will follow the Cabinet decision. That matters for landlords and agents because the published streets identify where the proposed powers may be used, but individual eligibility, formal notices and an actual auction remain separate steps. The initial public engagement took place earlier this year.
Rental auctions are principally a property and high-street regeneration tool, but a specific temporary permitted development right can support certain qualifying auction tenancies. They may nevertheless affect how owners market commercial buildings, how prospective occupiers approach vacant premises and how town centres recover from prolonged vacancy. For planning practitioners, the distinction between a council’s letting powers and the planning status of a prospective use is especially important.
Rental auctions pilot moves beyond the first consultation
Westmorland and Furness first consulted on the proposed pilot geography in February 2026, receiving submissions before the April deadline. Its Cabinet has now agreed the pilot designations for further consultation, a substantive new stage rather than simply another announcement of an existing national power. The council expects to test its approach in the four towns before considering use elsewhere across the district.
In Barrow, the selected streets include Cavendish Street, Dalton Road, Duke Street and Portland Walk. In Kendal they include Highgate, Market Place, Finkle Street, Elephant Yard and several connected shopping streets. Penrith’s proposed coverage includes Devonshire Street, King Street and Market Square, while Ulverston’s includes Market Street, King Street and County Square. The council’s official statement contains the complete street lists.
The council leader, Jonathan Brook, said bringing empty properties into use could support businesses and strengthen town centres, adding that Bringing long-term properties back into productive use, can support new and growing businesses
. Independent reporting by Place North West gives vacancy rates of 25.1% for Barrow, 18.1% for Kendal, 15.1% for Ulverston and 13.1% for Penrith. Those figures come from the specialist publisher and were not independently recalculated from a current council dataset.
How the rental auctions power operates
High Street Rental Auctions were introduced nationally in England in December 2024 under the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 framework. The government’s detailed guidance describes safeguards that must be satisfied before a council can arrange a tenancy on a landlord’s behalf. The existence of a pilot area does not by itself make every empty commercial building eligible for intervention.
The vacancy condition generally requires premises to have been empty for at least 12 continuous months or for at least 366 days over a 24-month period. Authorities must also consider whether the proposed occupation would benefit the local economy, society or environment, and whether the premises fall within a qualifying designation. Before an auction proceeds, formal notices and opportunities for a landlord to arrange a suitable letting apply.
Under the published national guidance an initial notice starts an eight-week period in which an owner can seek to enter a satisfactory tenancy with council consent. Further prescribed steps and challenge rights apply before an auction can take place. The successful occupier would ordinarily receive a lease of between one and five years, but the landlord retains ownership. It would be inaccurate to describe the Westmorland vote as an immediate compulsory purchase, a completed tenancy or permission to occupy any particular shop.
What vacant-shop owners should consider now
Owners with premises in the proposed streets should consider whether their buildings are genuinely vacant for the statutory period, whether a letting campaign has been undertaken and whether there are practical barriers to occupation. A premises with extensive repair needs or uncertain demand is different from a sound unit deliberately left empty. Landlords should retain accurate records of occupation, marketing and maintenance rather than assuming prolonged vacancy carries no practical consequences.
Rental auctions could also shift negotiations with landlords of prominent empty units. A prospective tenant might have an alternative route to occupation where voluntary marketing fails, but that route is neither immediate nor guaranteed. Agents will need to explain the notice procedure, eligibility and commercial terms accurately. Owners who want to re-let voluntarily retain opportunities to do so, subject to any applicable statutory notice restrictions.
The council has not identified individual premises to be auctioned, nor published completed auction results arising from this decision. The next important documents will therefore be the further consultation material, the final designated boundaries and any subsequent formal notices. For now, assessing the implications for an individual building requires both the exact designation map and the relevant vacancy and letting evidence.
Planning permission is a separate question
Rental auctions do carry a specific planning benefit: regulation 15 of the 2024 Rental Auctions Regulations introduced Class DB into Part 4 of Schedule 2 to the GPDO. Where its requirements are met, Class DB permits qualifying high-street premises to change temporarily to a suitable high-street use for the duration of a tenancy granted following a statutory rental auction. The use must revert when that tenancy ends. Planning Geek’s change of use guidance explains the wider planning position.
Class DB is not an unrestricted permission. The council must notify the local planning authority of the proposed use and its start and end dates; the right does not apply to premises forming part of a military explosives storage or safety hazard area, and it does not itself authorise external building works. Many high-street activities already fall within Use Class E, so a planning change of use may not be needed, although the auction tenancy can restrict the occupier’s permitted activities. Listed building consent, shopfront alterations and planning conditions remain separate matters. Owners, bidders and officers should check the specific use and any required works before relying on the lease.
There is also a public-interest balance to strike. Town-centre vacancy can damage footfall and confidence, but businesses need realistic occupation costs and owners need clarity about the condition of premises and the risks of letting. Rental auctions are a potentially useful intervention, not proof that the underlying economic and physical problems of high streets have disappeared.
What happens after the Cabinet decision?
The 10 November resolution advances the Westmorland and Furness pilot and starts the next consultation stage. The council says it will carry out a further 28-day consultation on the agreed proposed designations. Interested landlords, tenants and local businesses should use the official consultation process to test the street boundaries and practical operation before final implementation is settled.
Rental auctions will be worth following nationally if they begin to return significant numbers of long-empty commercial premises to productive use, especially in towns facing persistent retail vacancy. The meaningful next milestone in Cumbria will be final designation and the first individual action under the statutory process, not another general statement of aspiration. No specific auction or completed lease is announced in the Cabinet decision.
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