High streets in Sussex risk spiralling into “ghost towns” unless local councils take action to convert boarded-up shops into community facilities, the Government will say today.

Communities Secretary Hazel Blears will announce moves to give local authorities extra powers to change the use of empty premises without being bound by existing planning rules as part of a push to help town centres through the recession.

The minister will announce moves to help landlords of empty shops take on temporary occupiers - for use by social enterprises, local art displays or learning centres until the premises become commercially viable - by drawing up interim-use contracts with a proper legal basis.

Where landlords do not want to lease to temporary occupiers, ministers will call on councils to step in as intermediaries and grant similar interim licences to local groups for community use.

The Government also plans to introduce new rules to give existing shops that serve the community, such as local post offices and pubs, extra protections.

The package of measures, combined with £3million of grants to help organisations give disused buildings a makeover, are designed to reduce the negative impact empty shops have on the high street, boosting town centre and business confidence.

The Department for Communities and Local Government highlighted Brighton and Hove City Council’s work with Useful Arts, an organisation made up of recovering drug and alcohol addicts, which plans to exhibit a community photography project in an empty shop in the old Co-Op department store in Brighton’s London Road.

The council’s Arts and Creative Industries section will exhibit 50 photographs in the building, which has been empty for almost a year, during next month’s Brighton Festival.

Ms Blears, who will today chair a seminar with councils, business leaders, landlords and town centre managers to discuss ways to keep town centres thriving, will argue that temporarily converting empty shops into social enterprises, art displays or learning centres will help communities prevent their high streets becoming “ghost towns”.

She will say: “Town centres are the heartbeat of every community and businesses are the foundation so it is vital that they remain vibrant places for people to meet and shop throughout the downturn.

“Empty shops can be eyesores or crime magnets. Our ideas for reviving town centres - which I urge Sussex councils to consider - will give communities the know-how to temporarily transform vacant premises into something innovative for the community and stop the high street being boarded up.”

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