Newport has the highest city centre shop vacancy rate in the 海角视频, shows new research.
A report from think-tank the Centre for Cities reveals a striking divide in the state of the 海角视频鈥檚 high street, with city shop vacancy rates more than twice as high in Newport (highest of the 62 cities and towns assessed at 19%) and Bradford (17.6%) as the lowest in London (8.5%) followed by Cambridge (7.4%).
Newport along with Wigan and Middlesbrough 鈥 where more than one in seven shops are vacant 鈥 all have over twice the amount of retail space per person as Brighton and Liverpool 鈥 where the vacancy rate is below 10 per cent.
Newport also has the highest shop rate per 1,000 people in its catchment at 2.9 compared to just 0.8 in London.
Moreover, Newport and Bradford lose nearly 5% of high street spending respectively to nearby Cardiff and Leeds, while Birkenhead loses 7.5% to Liverpool.
Swansea is ranked 9th on the highest vacant rate list at 15.4% with 2.1 city centre shops for 1,000 people in its catchment area. The report says that Swansea benefits from not having large neighbours so has relatively little leakage of spending to other areas. Cardiff if ranked 33rd with a city centre vacancy rate of 12.4% and 1.1 shops per 1,000 people.
The report says of Newport: 鈥淭he centre of Newport has both the highest vacancy rate and the largest amount of retail space per head of catchment of any centre.
鈥淭he local authority reports though that this has improved over the last year in particular. After having remained constant for around a decade, the vacancy rate has fallen by around 20%, with much of the change the result of start-ups taking up space.
鈥淔ootfall is up too. In the first quarter of this year, it was 10% higher than in the first quarter of 2019.
The council recognises though that there is an oversupply of commercial space. Its challenge is to find a new use for space on peripheral streets in the centre and better match the size of its centre to the size of the city overall. It does also note though that when looking at occupancy rather than vacancy, its 400 occupied units puts it on par with Milton Keynes. This is something the oversupply of space masks.鈥
Those places with strong high streets have risen to the challenge of out-of-town shopping and online retail by pivoting from retail towards food, swapping redundant shops for caf茅s and restaurants.
In more affluent York and Edinburgh, 拢1 in every 拢4 is spent on food. Meanwhile in Bradford, Stoke and Wigan, it is around 拢1 in every 拢10. This change reflects the varying performance of the wider local economy: places with large shares of high-paid jobs generate more money to spend on high streets. In poorer areas, the lack of spending power means this shift hasn鈥檛 happened.
Centre for Cities says city and town centres with high vacancy rates should be remodelled to tackle an oversupply of retail space.
To turn around struggling high streets, the report recommends that:
The 海角视频 Government treats city centres as critical parts of the national economy, and allocate 拢5bn of its recently announced 拢113bn investment (recent spending review) to remake city centres with more office space, improved public realm and fewer shops;
The government (also Welsh Government) reforms much maligned business rates, but not to save the high street as many claim. The Centre for Cites says the business rates system is flawed, but its reform won鈥檛 revive high streets in struggling economies where many properties already pay nothing. It says cities increase the size of the catchment of their city centres through building more homes in inner-city locations, as opposed to more developments on the edge of town, where there is demand for this type of inner city living.
The think-tank also says that cities and towns should be realistic about visitor strategies, adding that if the prioritise making city centres attractive to residents visitor appeal will follow.
Andrew Carter, chief executive of Centre for Cities, said:鈥淭he high street has long been the bellwether of the local economy. Shuttered-up shops influence people鈥檚 opinions about how successful their areas are.
鈥淥ur research shows the high street isn鈥檛 failing everywhere. Where it is, the cause is not just cosmetic, it is economic. Policies relating to shopfronts, rents or parking miss the bigger picture.
鈥淐ity centres that struggle are over-supplied with shops and under-supplied with people. If local residents don鈥檛 have money to spend or a reason to be in the centre, high streets suffer 鈥 no matter what interventions are made.
鈥淚t is possible to revive the fortunes of struggling high streets. But it will require local and national governments to start by fixing the economy, and not just focussing on the high street itself.鈥
