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North-South divide shown in empty shop windows says new retail research

According to new research by the Local Data Company, Northern cities are showing a greater disparity with the South on the high street, with more closed shops and failing retailers than the South.

Southern centres seeing a vacancy rates improve by around 9% whilst centres in the North and Midlands have seen just a 3% improvement.

The North West continues to be the worst region for retail & leisure vacancy at 16.9% but has shown improvement of 0.4% whilst the North East is the only region to have shown a decline in its fortunes with an increase in vacancy rate by 0.4% to 16.4%.

Of the top 10 worst town centres for vacant retail and leisure premises, all of whom are above 23%, 6 are in the North East or North West. Conversely, of the top 10 best performing town centres with the least vacant units, 7 are in Greater London and the South East.North

The Local Data Company’s report on vacancy rates entitled ‘Not All Boats Rise On The tide’ analyses 3,000 town centres, shopping centres and retail parks visited in the last 12 months.

This report analyses both shop and leisure vacancy rates (All Vacancy) in the first half of 2014 to deliver the most comprehensive insight on the health of Britain’s towns, retail parks and shopping centres.

In the UK as a whole, shop vacancy rates have shown marked improvement towards the end of the year from their peak of 14.6% in February 2012 to reaching below 13.5% (13.4% in May 2014) for the first time since June 2010.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Clare Burnett .