If you take a lease of a shop in a high street, there is not much you can do about it if the landlords of the building a few doors away let their shop to someone in the same business as you.
But if you take a lease in a shopping centre or a parade and you start up a particular business – for example, a hairdressing salon – it is not unreasonable for you to expect some protection that the landlords won’t allow someone else to open up a hairdressing salon next door in a few months’ time.
You should seek a covenant in the lease from your landlords to protect your position.
You would need a covenant from the landlords which would guarantee that none of the other shops will be used for a competing business.
You have to be careful about the wording though. If the landlords give you a covenant “not to let” other premises as a hairdressing salon, that only takes you so far. If they tried to do such a letting, you could seek an injunction from a court to prevent it.
But suppose the landlord does everything correctly but the tenant further down the parade breaks their lease and starts providing hairdressing services alongside their nail bar. There’s nothing you can do about that because the landlords did comply with their obligation – they didn’t let the premises as a hairdressing salon.
What is missing is that the landlords didn’t covenant with you that they would take legal action against anyone who started doing hairdressing without permission. The landlord might be prepared just let that ride.
To better protect yourself, you would need a covenant from the landlords which would guarantee that none of the other shops will be used for a competing business – to try to catch the ongoing situation as well as the original letting. It would be down to your solicitors to negotiate the wording of the clause to give you the necessary protection.