Commercial Property Enquiries
Case reference FOI2026/01784
Received 21 August 2026
Published 14 October 2026
Request
I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act to request the following information:
This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Please could you provide the following information for areas that fall under Guildford Borough Council's authority for the period 1 January 2021 to 31st December 2025:
1. Vacant commercial and retail properties
· The total number of commercial/retail premises recorded as empty, vacant or unoccupied
· Where available, please could these figures be broken down by length of vacancy:
· Less than 6 months
· 6 – 12 months
· 12 months – 2 years
· More than 2 years
2. Empty property business rates relief
· The number of commercial/retail properties receiving empty property business rates relief or exemption at the end of each calendar year
3. Empty property notices
· The number of empty property notices, enforcement notices, or equivalent action taken in relation to vacant commercial/retail premises
4. Enforcement action relating to derelict buildings
· The number of enforcement actions taken in relation to vacant, derelict or poorly maintained commercial/retail premises, including boarding-up/securing works, Section 215 notices and other relevant enforcement notices, where separately recorded
5. Environmental health and anti-social behaviour
· Where separately recorded by the council or its relevant ASB team, please share the number of environmental complaints, reports, investigations, interventions or enforcement actions
For each of the above requests, please could the figures be broken down by town or city and year, where possible. Please provide the data in the following format:
Town/City
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
[Town/City]
X
X
X
X
X
Response
Thank you for your recent request under the Freedom of Information Act.
Please find the answers to your queries below:
I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act to request the following information:
This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Please could you provide the following information for areas that fall under Guildford Borough Council's authority for the period 1 January 2021 to 31st December 2025:
1. Vacant commercial and retail properties
· The total number of commercial/retail premises recorded as empty, vacant or unoccupied
· Where available, please could these figures be broken down by length of vacancy:
· Less than 6 months
· 6 – 12 months
· 12 months – 2 years
· More than 2 years
I can confirm that the Council holds information relating to its vacant land and buildings however we do not record the length of time specific properties are vacant therefore this information is not held. We would respond as follows:
|
Year |
Total Number of Vacant Commercial Properties |
Industrial |
Office |
Retail |
Other |
|
2025 |
10 |
6 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
|
2024 |
10 |
4 |
4 |
2 |
0 |
|
2023 |
15 |
9 |
4 |
2 |
0 |
|
2022 |
11 |
4 |
4 |
3 |
0 |
|
2021 |
16 |
10 |
3 |
3 |
0 |
2. Empty property business rates relief
· The number of commercial/retail properties receiving empty property business rates relief or exemption at the end of each calendar year
Guildford Borough Council publishes information regarding business rates on its website. This includes the details you have requested, and you can find the files, along with an explanation of the contents, via the following website:
https://www.guildford.gov.uk/bratesdata
As the information is already in the public domain I consider this information to be exempt from disclosure on request under Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 as it is already available elsewhere.
3. Empty property notices
· The number of empty property notices, enforcement notices, or equivalent action taken in relation to vacant commercial/retail premises
Zero.
4. Enforcement action relating to derelict buildings
· The number of enforcement actions taken in relation to vacant, derelict or poorly maintained commercial/retail premises, including boarding-up/securing works, Section 215 notices and other relevant enforcement notices, where separately recorded
Zero.
5. Environmental health and anti-social behaviour
· Where separately recorded by the council or its relevant ASB team, please share the number of environmental complaints, reports, investigations, interventions or enforcement actions.
Zero.
For each of the above requests, please could the figures be broken down by town or city and year, where possible.
N/A
Yours sincerely,
FOI Team
Guildford Borough Council
Documents
This is Guildford Council's response to a freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) request.
You can browse our other responses or make a new FOI request.