The UK high street has certaintly seen better days. Brits across the country have had to say goodbye to many of their local clothing stores, supermarkets, and banks, in a major blow to the high street. However, a recent report has revealed which high street in the country has struggled the most by revealed which has the most empty stores.
Centre for Cities looked at looked at the UK’s 62 biggest cities and towns to find out which ones high streets are failing and the reasons why. It found that the collapse in shops are a result of three main things – low local spending power, too much retail space and retail spending leakage to bigger cities.
The report ranked the top 10 cities with the highest and lowest estimated retail vacancies, giving a percentage to each, and it happens that Newport was took the top spot when it came to highest 10.
The Welsh city has an estimated city centre high street vacancy rate of 19%, over double than London’s rate of 7.4%. However, the report notes that the city, along with Wigan and Middlesborough, has more retail space than larger cities including Brighton and Liverpool, wehre the vacancy rate is lower than 10%.
Additionally, with Newport being under 15 minutes away from Cardiff by train, or a quick drive away, customers are often travelling to the Welsh capital to do their shopping instead, resulting in a high street spending loss of nearly 5%.
The report suggests that cities and town centres with high vacancy rates should be remodelled to tackle an oversupply of retail space.
Andrew Carter, Centre for Cities CEO, said: “Our research shows the high street isn’t failing everywhere. Where it is, the cause is not just cosmetic, it is economic. Policies relating to shopfronts, rents or parking miss the bigger picture.
“City centres that struggle are over-supplied with shops and under-supplied with people. If local residents don’t have enough money to spend or a reason to be in the centre, high streets suffer – no matter what interventions are made.”
In the 2010s, Newports high street underwent regenerations as part of a wider £2.6 million plan to improve the city centre shopping experience.