Could more homes be created above shops?

Creating more homes above shops in Spalding town centre is something that’s being looked into, but councillors have warned it might not be possible.

South Holland District Council is looking at other authorities’ attempts to see if it might work in the district.

The council’s assistant director for strategic growth and development Matthew Hogan told last week’s Spalding Town Forum meeting that Grantham was “getting significant government funding” to look at how it could improve space usage above shops.

“We’re trying to understand how they’re approaching and funding this and what they’re trying to achieve to see how we can adopt a similar approach locally,” he said. “This is something that a small but ever increasing number of local authorities are looking at.

“They want to bring different schemes and initiatives that property owners which have spaces above a shop bring them forward for alternative usage be that housing, space for charities, small business and office space, things that can add a bit more variation to the town centre.

“We’re trying to find what would be the best model for Spalding and other market town across the district and the wider South and East Lincolnshire Partnerships.”

Councillors were unsure of how viable it would be in Spalding.

“It would help a lot of problems, but it’s difficult if the buildings are privately owned,” Coun Elizabeth Sneath said. “It’s sad that the town centre is a bit of a ghost town in some ways as people don’t live there.”

Coun Roger Gambba-Jones told the meeting that he knew of one business owner who had tried to do it but found it ‘impossible’ due to the access.

“The biggest hurdle is the practicality of access,” he said. “Most of these areas above the shops were the homes for the shop keeper. Nowadays very few of those shop keepers live on site.

“What we’ve got now are shops where the access up the back stairs is almost impossible to separate from the business.

“The problem is even worse with listed buildings.

“It’s a good idea but not as straightforward as it would seem.”