Low rent better than no rent at all (From Andover Advertiser)

Low rent better than no rent at all

12:53pm Friday 1st March 2013 in Letters

I HAVE been a resident in Andover for 11 years and although the town still holds a somewhat rustic charm about it with its market days and relatively pedestrian-friendly shopping I fail to see the point with the owners of the Chantry Centre hiking up their rents to such a level that any small business stands little chance of surviving.

With several shops already closed and lying vacant within the centre, with more to close in the near future, would it not be prudent that the powers that be see the light and freeze the current rents where they are, or all that lies in the future is a mass of empty shop units and people taking their well earned cash elsewhere like Basingstoke, Salisbury or Newbury.

I know things are hard out there and George Osborne is forever bleating about austerity but there is always a thin line between making a buck and ripping off the public or, in our case, the shop rentees, which, if not stemmed, will inevitably end with a Chantry Centre full of empty shop units and a dying town.

It is not the sort of picture that you would like to paint to people who are looking to buy up property on the new developments being built around the area.

Due to the current economic climate would it not be better to have a lower rent coming in from a property than nothing at all from an empty unit that is going to be idle for the near future or until the general trend starts to go in an upward direction and consumers start to part more easily with their hard earned cash and return to the high street and town malls?

Stephen Mckillop St Alphege Gardens Andover