Britain’s shop vacancy rate in October was at its lowest level since June 2010, according to new research.
Figures released by the Local Data Company on 10 November revealed that the shop vacancy rate last month was 13.2 per cent, down from 13.3 per cent in September. The leisure vacancy rate was 7.8 per cent and the combined rate for retail and leisure was 11.8 per cent.
But the new analysis also revealed that in the top 650 towns across Britain, one in three shops – 7,697 – had been vacant for more than three years.
Just over a third (38.9 per cent) had been unoccupied for less than a year, which the Local Data Company described as “acceptable”.
Matthew Hopkinson, director at the Local Data Company, said that while the latest figures were broadly positive, almost 8,000 shops needed to be redeveloped or demolished “as clearly there is no retail use for them. In the top 650 towns alone, the number of empty shops equates to four Birmingham city centres lying empty.”
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