Shop vacancies hit new high in April – BRC
The British Retail Consortium says the UK town-centre shop vacancy rate in April rose to 11.9%, from 10.9% in January, to reach the highest level since the BRC/Springboard survey began in July 2011.
The BRC’s director general Helen Dickinson described the figures as a “major concern” and said the record rate of vacant retail premises had been driven by increases in almost every part of the UK. Some regions, such as the South West, saw a significant leap in empty shop numbers, she added.
“With high streets topping the agenda for many now, there’s a real opportunity here to seize the moment and stem the tide of further closures. Comparatively small steps to tackle deep-rooted issues such as parking, accessibility and rising business costs could make a huge difference to the health of town centres,” she said.
It was not all gloom and doom, however; the survey also showed that footfall in April was up 1% year-on-year, following a 5.2% drop in March, helped by warmer weather. High streets reported the greatest increase in footfall at 3.4%, while out-of-town footfall was up 0.3%; in shopping centres, footfall was down 3.0%, the worst performance since January. Helen Dickinson cautioned, however, that these figures were against a very rainy April 2012, when bad weather had deterred a lot of shoppers. “The trading environment remains volatile,” she added. “Retailers will be hoping that warmer weather and a Bank Holiday boost help May to usher in better news.”
Diane Wehrle, retail insights director at Springboard, noted that the weaker performance of “managed shopping environments” rather than high streets during 2013 so far partly reflected the fact that many high-profile retail failures had been located in malls, leading to holes in retail frontages that had reduced their attractiveness to shoppers. “The resilience of high streets is also likely to be a function of their diversity,” she added.
