Stockton high street fight hits M&S hurdle

The store on the high street closed in August after more than a century in the town

A council planning to spend £30m trying to save its high street might have hit a block with a Marks and Spencer lease.

Stockton council has approved borrowing the money to buy shops that might otherwise stand empty.

It has come to light that M&S has a 200 year lease on the high street store it closed in August and it said it was "exploring all opportunities".

If it is not sub-let or sold then it would "probably remain empty" the council chief executive said.

The long lease means the retail firm has a hold over who occupies the site, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

'On the ball'

Council chief executive Neil Schneider confirmed the M&S lease on the high street store and told council leaders the council could not sit back and allow a "slow decline".

"Far too often people think the council actually owns all the shop units, the land around the town centre and that we set the rents and rates - that's not the case," he said.

Some investors and companies who owned shops were "content to keep empty shop units empty", thwarting opportunities to regenerate high streets, he said.

Cabinet member for regeneration and housing Nigel Cooke told a full council meeting there was "very little we can do because there is very little property we own".

Council leader Bob Cook said it wanted to borrow the money to be "on the ball" when "the opportunity arises to take back control" of sites on the high street.