Britain's ghost towns: Up to a third of shops in high street are shut

Close to a third of shops are empty and derelict in some towns, research reveals.
Though the recession is officially over, its fallout is still spreading through the high street.

The proportion of stores that are empty rose from 12 to 13 per cent in the first half of the year.

In some towns, particularly those in the North, the figure is approaching 30 per cent and expected to rise.

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Boarded up: Blackpool is still suffering the side-effects of the recession with 30 per cent of shops on Central Drive vacant

Blackpool has the worst shop vacancy rate for a large shopping area - 29 per cent - according to research by analysts at The Local Data Company.

Bradford has a vacancy rate of 25 per cent, while Wolverhampton, Doncaster and Hull have figures that are little better.

Among smaller shopping areas, Altrincham, Greater Manchester, has a vacancy rate of 30.04 per cent and Margate, Kent, has a rate of 27.55 per cent.

Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, and Stockton-on-Tees, Co Durham, face similar levels of blight.

The report warns that high streets are being squeezed on all sides by a ‘perfect storm’ of factors.

As well as growing competition from out-of-town supermarkets and online shopping, they face falling demand from cash-strapped customers and plans to increase VAT to 20 per cent in the new year.

Boarded up: High Streets such as Rotherham's have been devastated

Evidence suggests that once the proportion of boarded up shops in an area reaches a critical level, vandals move in and shoppers stop visiting the remaining businesses.

The report, titled The Gathering Storm?, said: ‘Overall at the half-year, there are many more centres getting worse than getting better.’

The analysts found that 21 of the 25 worst performing large shopping streets have seen a rise in shop vacancy since January. The same pattern was seen for 21 of the 25 struggling smaller retail areas.

The figures also exposed the severity of the North-South divide. Of the worst-hit large shopping areas, just three were south of Watford.

These were Watford itself, Bristol and Reading.Mind the gap: Towns in the north of England are suffering from high street shop closures with up to 30 per cent of stores sitting empty in towns like Doncaster, Blackpool and Hull.

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The report warned that northern shopping streets will be particularly
vulnerable to Government public spending cuts and associated job losses.

‘The philosophy underpinning this administration is to shrink the State for good,’ it said. ‘For some big northern and peripheral centres, this could be the perfect storm.

‘Many large and medium-sized centres in the Midlands and North are yet to see a material improvement in vacancy.

‘Given the importance of public sector employment in these areas, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that, in the face of a shrinking State, they are going to struggle to fill their high streets for some time.’

Many town centres across Britain now contain a boarded-up Woolworths

By contrast some shopping centres and high streets in the South are seeing new businesses move into derelict properties.

Bath, Guildford and Henley-on-Thames are doing better, Central London continues to be strong and Wales has seen reductions in vacancy in Cardiff and Swansea.

A spokesman for the Local Data Company, Matthew Hopkinson, said: ‘The impact of the VAT increase, public sector cuts and fierce competition within the "multi-channel" retail environment make it increasingly hard for shops on our high streets.’

He suggested that a switch to online shopping will kill off many bricks and mortar stores, asking: ‘Will we ever need these vacant shops again?’