Voice of the Region: Shropshire – Locked stock and one smoking flaxmill

Bottlenecks in the planning system are a bigger obstacle to the Shropshire market than the UK’s broader economic woes, according to Towler Shaw Roberts partner Toby Shaw, who believes demand is very much there for quality developments once they finally get built.

Towler Shaw Roberts sits comfortably at the top of the Radius On Demand Rankings for Shropshire, with 75,153 sq ft of space transacted across 38 deals so far this year.

Shaw highlights Shrewsbury’s historic Flaxmill Maltings - the world’s first iron frame building which has been imaginatively redeveloped by Historic England for office use and is now attracting record rents for the town - as evidence that demand is there. However, he also believes the market is being hampered by a planning system which means developments are waiting years for work to even start on site.