Report highlights town vacancy rates
08 February 2012 10:05
A new report has said that one in seven shops on the UK's high streets stood empty in 2011, with further closures are expected this year across the country as more people shop online and in out-of-town centres.
Town centre vacancy rates stabilised last year at an average of 14.3%, or 48,000 shops, according to a report by the Local Data Company, despite a spate of high-profile retail administrations including Barratts, Jane Norman and The Officers Club.But while some high streets are still thriving, particularly in the south of England, the report warned many centres are "locked in a spiral of decline".
With 2012 expected to see a further fall in consumer confidence, rising unemployment, the continued growth of supermarkets and the internet and uncertainty in bank lending, it predicts the vacancy rate will rise again.
It said the high street faces "structural issues", with the internet's share of the shopping market having doubled in the past 11 years and out-of-town centres also seeing growth.
Prime town centre locations have generally remained healthy but secondary centres in outlying areas have been the biggest losers as they struggle to compete with retail parks and the internet.
The report also confirmed a north-south divide in the health of high streets, with most of the locations with above average vacancy rates in the midlands or the north.
Stockport was the worst centre with a vacancy rate over 30%, while Nottingham, Grimsby, Stockton-on-Tees, Wolverhampton, Blackburn, Walsall and Blackpool all had more than a quarter of shops empty.
Although York and Harrogate had vacancy rates below 10%, the best performing centres were mainly in the south and west. These included Exeter, Kingston, Camden, Cambridge, Taunton, Salisbury and St Albans, which was the best performer with an 8.2% vacancy rate.
LDC director Matthew Hopkinson said: "The reality is that the odds are stacked against a positive take-up of shops and as such the new reality of 48,000 empty shops is here to stay unless an alternative use or purpose can be found."
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