COMMERCIAL


Liz Peace, CEO of the British Property


Federation, said, “It is encouraging to see High Streets recovering in the South, but that positive glimmer doesn’t hide the fact that other retail markets are struggling and that consumer confidence is still fragile. “This data highlights the need for


government initiatives to help regional centres, such as proposals for Local Enterprise Partnerships, the £1bn Regional Growth Fund, and its National Insurance holiday for companies hiring new staff, to be implemented quickly and effectively.” However, filling empty shops


won’t be easy or quick. Banks and landlords need a proactive approach to managing property, while local authorities have a key role to play in promoting flexibility and innovation in areas suffering from a high number of vacancies. The problem is exacerbated by the


continued imposition of empty property rates, which has forced landlords to pay money in tax they could have used to make their property more attractive to tenants.”


Activity by town 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, while 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 per cent of the total, but only eight per cent 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. This reinforces the picture that, with


few exceptions, such improvements as are being seen in retail markets are being led by London and the wider South East, with some local markets getting better in, for example, Bristol or South Wales. Many large and medium-sized centres in the Midlands and North are yet to see a material improvement in vacancy. Given the importance of public sector employment in these areas, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that, in the face of a shrinking State, they are going to struggle to fill their High Streets for some time.


There are many more centres getting worse than there are getting better.’


TABLE 1 - Large sized centres


RAnk TOWN CENTRE VACANCY RATE (%) DiffERENCE (%) 28.93% -0.20% ▼


1 Blackpool 2 Bradford


3 Wolverhampton* 23.78% 4.44% ▲ 4 Doncaster 5 Nottingham


24.64% 3.94% ▲ 23.70% 5.31% ▲


6 Kingston-u-Hull 21.37% 2.94% ▲ 7 Sheffield 8 Grimsby


22.99% 2.82% ▲ 21.27% 1.25% ▲


9 Manchester 10 Leeds


21.08% 8.03% ▲ 20.39% 2.62% ▲ 19.48% 6.62% ▲


11 Middlesborough 19.00% 1.46% ▲ 12 Leicester


18.24% 4.12% ▲


13 Birmingham 17.93% -0.17% ▼ 14 Newcastle-u-Tyne 17.87% 3.45% ▲ 15 Sunderland 16 Derby


17 Watford 18 Preston


19 Wakefield 20 Liverpool


17.47% 0.41% ▲ 17.23% 2.69% ▲ 16.70% 5.93% ▲ 16.68% 0.84% ▲ 15.28% 1.51% ▲ 15.11% -1.62% ▼


21 Northampton 14.77% 5.02% ▲ 22 Carlisle 23 Bristol


24 Reading 25 Scarborough


14.73% 0.78% ▲ 14.35% -0.04% ▼ 14.17% 3.11% ▲ 14.15% 2.07% ▲


* Wolverhampton City Centre Management bespoke boundary drops the vacancy rate to 13.5. per cent (364 Shops rather than 584 within the CLG retail core).


TABLE 2 - Medium sized centres


RAnk TOWN CENTRE VACANCY RATE (%) DiffERENCE (%) 30.04% 8.67% ▲


1 Altrincham 2 Margate 3 Dewsbury


27.55% 0.48% ▲ 27.44% 10.51% ▲


4 Stockton-on-Tees 27.27% 6.86% ▲ 5 Morecombe (W.End) 25.01% 8.15% ▲ 6 Leith


23.44% 0%


7 Warrington 8 Stockport 9 Brixton


10 Gateshead 11 Wandsworth 12 Cliftonville 13 Dartford


22.85% 11.09% ▲ 22.27% 1.13% ▲ 21.72% -0.21% ▼ 21.55% 2.37% ▲ 21.29% 0.43% ▲ 20.64% 3.82% ▲ 20.51% 10.03% ▲


14 Upper Norwood 20.33% 2.49% ▲ 15 Dunstable 16 Sale


17 Whitley Bay 18 Letchworth 19 Harlow 20 Hinckley 21 Rochdale


Bath maintains the classic retail mix of boutique and major stores


22 Gainsborough 23 Shipley 24 Walsall


25 Scunthorpe


20.32% 8.38% ▲ 20.12% 6.65% ▲ 20.01% 0.58% ▲ 19.86% -0.70% ▼ 19.75% 11.83% ▲ 19.69% -0.90% ▼ 19.54% 1.90% ▲ 19.44% 4.78% ▲ 19.35% 5.25% ▲ 18.55% 3.83% ▲ 18.37% 3.08% ▲


34 OCTOBER 2010 PROPERTYdrum


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