Aire Street Workshops: Council vows to work with creatives facing eviction

A council has promised to work with 31 creative businesses facing eviction from a Leeds former factory.

Aire Street Workshops has been a collaborative space for young creatives for about 30 years.

Leeds City Council must sell the site as it does not have the budget for repairs, but leader James Lewis said it was keen to discuss alternative plans.

LCVS Enterprises, which leases the building, has called for a pause in the sale until a solution is found.

As it stands, all businesses based in the building have been told to vacate by 31 January 2025.

Currently more than 150 people work at the site, and 60% of those are under the age of 25.

'We simply don't have the money'

Mr Lewis said any ideas for a solution were welcome.

"We do understand the significance of the building and the location - we simply don't have the money to do the building up ourselves," he said.

"Any ideas people have around how that building can be renovated and without it being at a cost to the council, we are really interested in that."

Mr Lewis said there had been "communication issues" around how people based at Aire Street Workshops were told about the sale.

"The council owns the building, we have one tenant who leases the building from us, and all the other businesses are their tenants," he said.

"We were talking to our tenant a while ago, but it seems that the businesses based there have only just found out about that.

"We really do want to work with the businesses."

Camille Hewitt, a photographer and set designer based in Aire Street Workshops, said she was concerned about the impact the evictions would have, not only on her own business but on the wider creative community in Leeds.

"We can't really lose our spaces because there aren't really any more spaces in Leeds to go to," she said.

"It is such an important issue. Not only is this such an awful thing for the council to do, it is representative of a wider issue around the creative culture of Leeds as a whole.

"I need a physical space to be able to do what I do. That doesn't really give me a lot of options apart from moving to a different city to continue my career."

Andrew Wood, from Campus Industries, also based in the building, said: "We are asking the council to put this on pause while we can seriously consider other options.

"There are lots of other options such as a community asset transfer, such as a benefactor coming in, changing the use of the building.

"There are lots of options that could potentially raise funds for the council but also maintain an element of the status quo, so that some of the 150 people that operate in this building could be saved."

LCVS Enterprises said in a statement that it understood the council was unable to invest in the building to bring it up to standards required by legislation - but that it did not have the money either.

"There are no guarantees that alternative accommodation can be found and there is every chance that some of these businesses may have to cease trading," it said.

"In view of this, we feel that a pause in the sale of the building is required to ensure that all of the alternatives have been considered by all interested parties."

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