Hi Michael,

it's the same story in other areas. We have worked with a few different meanwhile space type companies. They basically say the following;

• Agents are a waste of time, it only seems to work if you speak directly to the landlord.

• It helps to have an incentive such as a rate rebate because you are a charity. Some meanwhile space companies are CIC's but they have a separate company that is a charity or the scheme is set up as a charity.

• All the big schemes (that I know of) for meanwhile space (as in 10 shops) have been 'luck out's' where they have all be in under one landlord. that's who it worked at Brixton Market and Willesden Green.

The big incentives for landlords are if they are local and really love the area, but these are hard to find. But if a meanwhile space can lead to a viable business that will turn into along term client, then that will be a big incentive. as part of the Portas Scheme, this should help as shops will get expert advice which should help them become long term viable businesses rather than the high quick turnover of copycat businesses that infect out high streets.

At the end of the day it's better to have someone in your shop paying rent than no-one. As shown by Dartmouth Road, once good, creative, exciting, different businesses start to move to an area, other follow and it organically starts to regenerate. Smart landlords know that.

Hopefully Forest Hill has smart landlords with guts and vision and not greedy ones with narrow minds.