Facelift for shops on Sheffield road with ‘poor image’

Independent firms on a busy Sheffield road are set to be revamped in a £600,000 bid to make it a ‘destination’ for visitors.

London road shops

Businesses along London Road – which is a major artery route into the city centre and known for its mix of restaurants from around the world – will benefit from the scheme if owners agree.

Similar projects to repair, revamp and improve shops have taken place in Darnall and Spital Hill.

But this initiative – expected to be given the go ahead by Sheffield Council chiefs next week – forms part of a wider regeneration plan for London Road, which includes a £65 million development of shops, cafes, student flats and offices.

It will work by providing up to £4,500 per shop to improve their frontages.

Reports to the council’s cabinet say the road’s ‘overall image is poor, it exudes a lack of pride and suffers from fly posting on vacant buildings.’

It adds: “The centre has an existing reputation for the diversity of the food offer and boosting the image of the centre by improving the environment through a shop front improvement scheme provides an opportunity to build on the reputation and aim for recognition as a destination.”

The scheme will be paid for using money from the new homes bonus paid to the council by government for building houses.

Reports to cabinet said that the schemes in Spital Hill and Darnall had reduced the number of vacant units there and ‘increased investment’ in both the areas.

Councillor Jayne Dunn, the council’s cabinet member for housing said: “The shop front improvement scheme has made a significant impact in Darnall and Spital Hill and we are hoping it will have a similar impact on London Road.”

First time buyer woe as Sheffield crowned ‘gazumping’ capital in survey

First time buyers Adelle Draper and Steve Hampshire

Property buyers across Sheffield have an uphill battle on their hands after the city was declared the ‘gazumping’ capital of the country.

A survey of 1,000 homeowners found that the practice, where the seller of a home accepts an offer but then rejects it in favour of a higher bid, was down across the UK but had risen in Sheffield.

Almost a third of buyers in Sheffield had been gazumped when looking to buy a property, a steep increase of 25 per cent in the last 10 months.

Website eMoov, which carried out the survey, also found that demand for property in Sheffield had soared by 35 per cent, which is said to be the main reason for the rise in gazumping as first-time buyers race to get a foot on the ladder.

Local couple Adelle Draper and Steve Hampshire have been looking to buy a home, ideally in the south west of the city with three bedrooms, a garden and two parking spaces, since January.

They had an offer accepted on a house in Dronfield and a move-in date was agreed, but the seller then pulled out, leaving them hundreds of pounds out of pocket after paying for surveys.

Businesswoman Adelle, aged 29, said: “What this has highlighted to us is that there is a lack of housing for the first-time buyer end of the market in the Sheffield area, particularly from the S11 to S18 side of the city.

“We went to look at a house in Coal Aston where offers were accepted over £160,000. After the first viewings they had three offers on the table by 10am the next day and they said it had gone up to almost £180,000.

“We are going to have to look elsewhere and compromise on the location because it is too difficult. I think the experience has taught us not to become too emotionally attached because it is so frustrating – we’ve been outbid, we thought we’d bought a house and they pulled out.

“It is a bit depressing. It’s like a race where you have to get a viewing the same day it goes on the market, make a decision straightaway and make an offer the second the estate agent opens – but you still might not be the only person who does so.”

Mortgage broker Daniel Bailey, owner of Middleton Finance based in Stoney Middleton in the Peak District, said: “First-time buyers, even when they can get the mortgage, are finding that getting the property they want is becoming really difficult because there seems to be a lot of people chasing the same kind of property.

“We’ve had a couple of first time buyers who have been gazumped.”

by Ellen Beardmore

http://www.sheffieldtelegraph.co.uk/news/local/first-time-buyer-woe-as-sheffield-crowned-gazumping-capital-in-survey-1-7430378