Coronavirus: Empty stores at highest level since 2014 after raft of closures
Boarded-up shop fronts reflect the fact that city centres are struggling to attract people back after lockdown, a report says.
Thursday 3 September 2020 21:03, UK
Shop vacancies have risen to their highest level for more than six years after a raft of store closures caused by the coronavirus crisis, new figures show.
Data from Springboard shows that 10.8% of shops stood empty in July, up from 9.8% in January.
Vacancies rose in most parts of the country with the biggest increase in Greater London, where they were up by two-thirds.
The report said it reflected the "difficulties faced by large cities in attracting customers back".
It said the overall vacancies rate of 10.8% was the highest since January 2014 "reflecting the widespread store closures announced by large retail and hospitality operators".
The figures cover sites that have ceased trading rather than those yet to reopen after the COVID-19 lockdown.
"The reality of the new normal has already started to bite," the report said.
Brands such as Oasis Warehouse and Cath Kidston have already disappeared from the high street with larger retailers such as John Lewis and Boots also closing outlets, together with restaurant chains including Pizza Express and Café Rouge.
Many firms on Britain's high streets were already struggling with challenges such as high business rates and online competition even before the pandemic struck.
The retail sector has been the worst hit by the impact of the coronavirus jobs crisis according to a Sky News tracker of publicly-announced cuts, with hospitality also badly affected.
Springboard's observation on how the continued failure to attract people back to city centres is taking its toll chimes with signs that many workers are still not going back to the office despite being encouraged by the government to do so.
The report showed footfall in shopping locations was 30.8% lower in August than the same month last year - an improvement on July though a slower one than had been seen earlier in the post-lockdown period.
There were wide variations depending on the type of locations, with out-of-town retail parks only 11.1% down but high streets off by 38.3% and shopping centres by 33.9%.
Within high streets, it was smaller towns that did relatively better, benefiting from home working, while coastal locations were boosted by people taking breaks within the UK rather than abroad.
Yet both these types of area were still down by about a quarter on last year.