Town centre vacancy rates in Great Britain have risen from just over 12% at the end of 2009, to 13% at the end of June 2010.
Already there is a clear North/South divide apparent in shop vacancies. The big centres in London and the South East particularly are holding up well, while further north vacancy rates are much higher. This survey shows the increase in vacancy rates is slowing down. For those economies anchored by the public sector, this could be only a temporary respite according to the Local Data Company.
Overall at the half-year, there are many more centres getting worse than are getting better. Of the 63 large centres analysed, ten centres showed an improvement over the six months to the half-year, and only eight of these showed a consistent improvement over the year. These improvers include Bath, Guildford, Central London, Cardiff and Liverpool.
While it is way too early to describe these centres as "coming out of recession", clearly their retail markets are getting better.
As far as the medium-sized centres are concerned, a similar picture emerges. Of the 400 centres analysed, 73 improved over the last six months - 18% of the total, but only 8% had lower vacancy rates year on year. Amongst these 73 centres, 25 have improved consistently over the past year. With one exception - Grantham - these are all in the southern half of the country and include Home Counties stalwarts like Henley and Romsey, London centres such as Clapham and Putney, and Welsh centres such as Swansea and Pontypridd.
Matthew Hopkinson, business development director at The Local Data Company commented: "Our latest report shows the reality of a slowed but still rising increase in shop vacancy rates across the country. Whilst some centres, particularly Central London and the South East are showing stabilisation or improvement, others in the provinces are not.
“The impact of the VAT increase, public sector cuts and fierce competition within the ‘multi channel' retail environment make it increasingly hard for shops on our high streets. In light of these new and fast growing ‘off the high street' channels, will we ever need these vacant shops again? For those that survive, service, quality of offer and price need to be their values in order to ensure they can thrive."
