The high street faced its fair share of problems during the recession contributing to the number of vacant town centre properties. However, since the economy began to pick up last year there has been an upturn in the fortunes of the high street, with the vacancy rate in town centres falling to a four year low.
According to findings by the Local Data Company, which examines conditions in more than 2,000 town centres and retail parks, the average vacancy rate for the UK hit 13.9 per cent in December – the first time it has fallen below 14 per cent since 2009. This indicates a growing strength in the retail industry as the vacancy rate has fallen sharply from the peak 14.6 per cent recorded during February 2012.
Unfortunately, it appears that this good news has a certain element of regional variation, as the North East and North West continue to be the hardest hit by economic factors crippling local high streets. In fact, these regions combined are home to seven of the sites with the highest vacancy rates in the country, with seaside resort Morecambe once more taking the top spot in terms of empty shops.
The North West, North East and East of England all saw an actual increase in high street shop vacancies during the past 12 months, with the North West particularly badly affected by a December vacancy rate level of 17 per cent. When compared to London’s figure of only 8.1 per cent, or even the 12.2 per cent national average, it is clear that the region’s retailers are continuing to suffer under the widespread pay freezes and unemployment.
Local Data Company director Matthew Hopkinson claims that the divide exists not only regionally, but also in terms of retail locations.
He says; “What is clear from the Local Data Company’s latest report is that there is a significant and growing divide between the north of the country and the south.
“In addition, we are seeing greater concentrations of the best retail and leisure destinations in fewer centres, be they large out of town ‘shopping parks’ or the increasing number of ‘mega malls’.”
Smaller towns certainly seem to be faring best at present, with the average vacancy rate for towns with fewer than 200 retail units dropping to only 9 per cent. Medium-sized towns, meanwhile, have an average vacancy rate of 12 per cent.
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