As you walk down your local high street, you may have noticed the amount of empty boarded up shops. Unfortunately this trend is set to continue as the number of unoccupied high street commercial properties remains worryingly high.
According to the Local Data Company (LDC) 14.1 per cent of shops are empty in 650 city centres throughout the UK. This is only down by 0.1 per cent from the previous reading which was taken in February of this year.
Wales has the highest unoccupied rate at 17.5 per cent, whereas Scotland and England are closer to the average with 14.9 and 14 per cent respectively.
So which cities are filling their empty properties and which are turning into deserted high streets? Blackburn is the worst city centre for empty shops with over a quarter of all properties remaining empty (26.9 per cent). Larger cities seem to be handling the issue better with London having a low vacancy rate of 9.4 per cent and Cambridge having the best vacancy rate of just 7 per cent.
Speaking of the vacancy rate remaining high throughout the country, Matthew Hopkinson, Director at the LDC said: “This report clearly shows that whilst the rise of empty shops has stalled it still remains stubbornly high for many towns up and down the country.”
But another worry is that many of the empty properties have been empty now for some time. So as well as recent closures, high streets are also having to deal with ‘long-term sick’ properties.
Matthew continued: “Since August 2010 the national average has been above 14%, with a significant number being ‘long-term sick’ with little or no prospect of reoccupation as shops.”
Do you see things improving for the high street anytime soon? Or do you feel that the high vacancy rate is only set to get worse?
