08 August 2022
The latest retail vacancy rates for retail shops on the high street have been released by the British Retail Consortium and Local Data Company.
The figures show that for the second quarter of 2022, the overall vacancy rate across Great Britain had decreased to 14.0%, which is 0.1% down from Q1 - and that this has been the third consecutive quarter of falling vacancy rates.
The report also highlights that as life is returning to the High Street and other shopping locations throughout the country post the pandemic, this has been a reassuring move for the industry.
However, this improvement is also seen to be far shallower than the previous quarter, this will still cause business owners to be anxious, coupled with the cost-of-living crisis which will be impacting consumer spending power.
The figures also highlight that shopping centres have seen a decrease in vacancies within Q2, falling to 18.9% and down from 19.0% in Q1 of this year.
Andrew Goodacre, CEO of Bira said that the decrease in the vacancy rates was an encouraging sign.
“Shop vacancy levels are often seen as a good barometer to assess the health of the high street. If the high street is doing well, vacancy levels are lower.
“From an independent perspective, we tend to focus on the high street statistics as there are fewer independents found in shopping centres or retail parks. Retail parks have fared better than other locations throughout the pandemic period - large open spaces, large stores but more importantly, accessibility and free parking. The sooner local authorities wake up to the barriers caused by car parking charges in towns and cities, the sooner we can expect to see vacancy rates improve at a faster rate,” he said.
However, he added: “As regards high streets, it is very welcome to see continued improvement, even if it is small steps. I would hope that this reflects the continued renaissance of local shopping and improved levels of confidence in indie retailers. We have seen from previous reports that there have been more indie shop openings than national chains, and I suspect this trend is continuing in the local areas. However, it is not a positive trend everywhere and where the vacancy levels have not improved (or worsened) we would like to see more support from local authorities and more flexibility from landlords to allow properties to be used.
“Finally, we know that vacancy rates tend to lag behind other factors and we are now seeing the impact of economic uncertainty and business costs spiralling out of control. Whilst these rates are positive, national and local governments should not lose sight of the fact that the situation is fragile and indie retailers on the high street need support to get through the current crisis. The obvious immediate solution is to reduce the rates burden, starting with reversing the increase in rates introduced this year,” he said.
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