About 6,000 shops have closed across Britain over the past five years as crippling business rates push vacancies to “critical levels”.
New research from the British Retail Consortium and Local Data Company show the overall vacancy rate has risen to 13.9%, 0.1 percentage point worse than the previous quarter.
That picture is a direct mirror of the high street, which has risen to 13.9%. Shopping centre levels remained unchanged at 17.8%, while retail parks retained the lowest vacancy rate, falling by 0.6 percentage points to 8.1%.
The highest vacancy rates were in the North Est and the Midlands, followed by Wales and Scotland.
BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson said crippling business rates and the impact of the Covid lockdowns were a “key part of decisions to close stores and think twice about new openings”, while rising interest rates and inflationary pressures were also to blame.
Dickinson said the government needed to review the “broken business rates system”, or risk further store closures,
She said: “Currently, there’s an additional £400m going on retailers’ bills next April, which will put a brake on the vital investment that our towns and cities so desperately need.”
She added that the government’s plans to make change of use for vacant units easier would lead to “gap-toothed high streets that are no longer a customer destination” and “unviable”, unless local councils have a cohesive plan.
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