Way back in 2000, Dan Thompson was running Revolutionary Arts in Worthing, a group of artists creating temporary installations in unusual places all over town. They would often use empty shops, negotiating with the property owners to use the space free of charge for a set period of time.

When the recession started to bite in 2007, increasing numbers of people were getting in touch with Dan asking how they could replicate what Revolutionary Arts were doing.

Dan says: “It became obvious that while we weren’t the only people using empty shops, no one was keeping a central database of information on how to do it and the philosophy behind it.

We set up an offshoot of Revolutionary Arts with the aim of filling that gap and making it easier for people to start their own projects.”

There are now people using the Empty Shop Network resources across the country for an eclectic range of different projects, from an arts centre in an old fish market in Northampton to a series of events in Belfast including a “moving garden” and gigs in old shop windows. During half term in February this year, the ESN helped put on a children’s activity centre in the old Allied Carpets building in Worthing.

If all this seems little more than artistic frippery, the numbers tell a different story. Dan says over the past 20 years 88 million square feet of new shops have been built. The British Retail Consortium report that nationally, on average, 12.5% of shops are empty, with the recession set to see that rise to 15%, and the Empty Shops Network saying that one in five might never be used commercially again.

But the philosophy behind the ESN is not just about getting something for nothing in tough times.

Dan says: “Firstly it’s saying the temporary nature of things is special in itself. We don’t have to aspire to building a multi-million-pound art centre, for example. Transience has it’s own value and worth.

“Then it’s about the changing nature of the town centre. We have more shops than we need. In the past community centres were in the fringes, sidelined because of commercial viability.

“Now we have a chance to put interesting community activity back on the high street so it can be found more easily.”

Does Dan think the people refusing to leave the Lewes Road Community Garden are giving other empty shop users a bad name?

“It’s an interesting debate,” he says magnanimously. “What they’re trying to do is create a permanent garden. I’d like to see them embrace the philosophy. Do it for a short time and then go and do it somewhere else again.”

As far as the network goes, they have always been open and straight with landlords. They’ve never squatted, only staying for the time they have agreed and always working legally. “There’ll always be people who can’t let go,” says Dan. “But I’ve always believed it’s about the short term.”

In just a couple of years the Empty Shops Network has gone from a small local arts organisation to one working across the country, with real clout in driving the landscape of creativity and culture, while at the same time putting otherwise empty and rotting spaces to use.

There has been no funding, beyond a small amount of money from the previous Labour administration, but the idea has taken off anyway. Why?

“Knowledge and skills are better shared,” says Dan.