Re use potential and vacant industrial premises: revisiting the regeneration issue in Stoke-on-Trent

Recent policy pronouncements on the UK built environment have reinforced the importance of infrastructure, sustainable use, and brownfield development. This paper focuses on an important aspect of this area - the issue of vacant industrial premises - brown buildings - in the local industrial property market. Using unique datasets produced as part of an EPSRC funded project in the Sustainable Cities Programme, the analysis charts and explores the problem in the Stoke-on-Trent area. The contention is that future policy thinking must draw on documented local experiences. The particular emphasis is on the potentials of such buildings, and the processes and participants in re-use and refurbishment. A framework for the analysis of the re-use process is developed and this is evaluated in terms of the reoccupation and re-use characteristics revealed in the Stoke-on-Trent research.