Shopping space equivalent to Westfield London was lost from UK’s high streets last year.
More than 1.7m sq ft of retail space was lost in 2013 as developers sought to convert shops into other uses, a rise of 61% on the previous year, according to Estates Gazette’s retail research team.
The North West accounted ?for more than a fifth of all space lost. By sq ft, leisure made up most of the conversions from ?A1, with almost two-thirds ?of shops, some 1.3m sq ft, being turned over to leisure.
Betting shops were the biggest winner by number of permissions, securing 106 changes of use.
EG’s data shows councils permitted nearly 80% of applications for change of use to betting shops, refusing just a tenth, with authorities in the North East agreeing to the highest number.?
Nadia.Elghamry@estatesgazette.com
