Croydon points to a fashion exit

The situation you mentioned in your article about Croydon council not helping not-for-profit business Fashion Enter (Drapers, March 28) flies in the face of the recent debate about landlords being more flexible with small retailers to minimise empty units in the UK.

Fashion Enter has helped hundreds of young designers by promoting their ranges in its shops in London, but will it be able to continue to do so in Croydon?

The Fashion Enter model is the only opportunity for designers to retail their collections direct to the public and receive the lion’s share of the sales turnover.

Other local authorities have granted rate relief to Fashion Enter as a “not-for-profit and community” organisation, so why has Croydon council chosen not to?

Last month the government asked all councils in the UK to come up with schemes to fill all the empty shop sites in their boroughs with art installations and other attractive temporary options to prevent high streets and shopping centres looking like ghost towns.

It is interesting to see that Croydon council’s inflexibility could lead to the closure of Fashion Enter’s fairly large unit in the town.