The Covid-19 pandemic has lost the South West’s biggest cities more than half a year’s worth of potential income and led to shops closing, a new report reveals.
The Cities Outlook 2022 report – Centre for Cities’ annual economic assessment of the 海角视频’s largest urban areas - reveals that Bristol fared worst in terms of lost sales during the Covid crisis and its lockdowns.
Meanwhile, Plymouth was the worst in the region for an increase in empty city centre shops during the same period - and the sixth highest nationally.
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The report reveals Covid-19 cost some city and large town centres in the South West more than half a year’s worth of potential takings since March 2020.
Central Bristol was worst affected, losing 38 weeks of sales between the first lockdown and Omicron’s onset. Businesses in Exeter and Swindon city centres were also among the worst hit, with 35 and 28 weeks of lost sales respectively. Plymouth lost 25 weeks, and Gloucester’s city centre lost the fewest weeks of sales (16 weeks) in the South West during the pandemic.
Nationally, Covid-19 cost businesses in city and large town centres more than a third (35%) of their potential takings since March 2020, with central London, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Cardiff worst affected.
Also, across the 52 city and town centres studied, 2,426 commercial units have become vacant during the pandemic, against 1,374 between 2018 and 2020.
Plymouth, with a 5.8% increase in vacant units, was the worst hit in the region, and behind only Oxford, most affected in the 海角视频 with an 8.4% rise, Newcastle, Portsmouth, Northampton and Cardiff, across the nation.
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Plymouth now has 19.1% of its city centre business units sitting empty, the third worst total in the South West - behind Gloucester and Swindon - and the 25th worst in the 海角视频. Exeter, by contrast has just 12.9% of its city centre units unoccupied, the eighth best in the 海角视频 and just behind London.
But the report found that high streets in economically weaker places have been less impacted by Covid-19. Meanwhile in economically stronger places, business closures increased during the pandemic.
This suggests that the Government’s Covid-19 support successfully stalled the decline of many struggling high streets but was less effective in economically stronger places due to higher rents and a lack of custom from office workers.
City centres with a higher share of jobs easily done from home suffered more lost weeks of sales, the report said.
The report found that stronger city centres relied on a wider catchment area that shrank temporarily, and the number of lost weeks of sales was higher in cities with a more affluent catchment area.
That said, while stronger city centres have borne the economic brunt of the pandemic, their higher levels of affluence mean that, if restrictions end and office workers return, they will likely recover quickly.
Meanwhile, while Government support has sheltered weaker places, it may have simply stored up pain for the future. The report warns that many less prosperous places in the South West face a wave of new business closures this year.
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To avoid permanently levelling down prosperous places, policy makers should run campaigns to encourage leisure visitors back when safe to do so and provide part-time season tickets to encourage workers back to the office.
For struggling places, policy makers drafting the Levelling Up White Paper should focus on dealing with struggling places’ fundamental economic problems to address high street decline.
This means investing in skills and ways to strengthen the wider local economy to increase money in shoppers’ pockets, rather than on “cosmetic” quick fixes such as “hanging baskets and painting shop fronts”.
Andrew Carter, chief executive of Centre for Cities, said: “While the pandemic has been a tough time for all high streets it has levelled down more prosperous cities and towns in the South West. Despite this, the strength of their wider local economies means they are well placed to recover quickly from the past two years.
“The bigger concern is for economically weaker places – primarily in the North and Midlands – where Covid-19 has actually paused their long-term decline.
How to contact William Telford and Business Live
Business Live's South West Business Reporter is William Telford. William has more than a decade's experience reporting on the business scene in Plymouth and the South West. He is based in Plymouth but covers the entire region.
To contact William: Email: william.telford@reachplc.com - Phone: 01752 293116 - Mob: 07584 594052 - Twitter: - LinkedIn: - Facebook:
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“To help them avoid a wave of high street closures this year the Government must set out how it plans to increase peoples’ skills and pay to give them the income needed to sustain a thriving high street. Many of these places are in the so-called Red Wall so there is a political imperative for the Government to act fast, as well as an economic one.”
Centre for Cities is a research and policy institute, dedicated to improving the economic success of 海角视频 cities. It is a charity that works with cities, business and Whitehall to develop and implement policy that supports the performance of urban economies. It does this through impartial research and knowledge exchange.
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