North-South retail trade divide opens up as high streets decline
Activer le mode zenZoe Wood
A stark north-south divide is laid bare by a study published on Tuesday of shop vacancy rates which shows towns and cities in the Midlands and the north are being hardest hit by the high street downturn.
The highest number of shuttered shops was counted in Stockport where more than 30% are now empty, according to a report by the Local Data Company (LDC). The picture is also grim in Nottingham, Grimsby, Wolverhampton and Blackburn, where the vacancy rates increased and at least one in four stores are closed, according to the study of 700 British town centres.
The LDC director, Matthew Hopkinson, said that although the number of empty shops had "stabilised" at a national level in the last six months of 2011 the outlook was bleak: "The stable top line rate hides the significant breadth of town centre vacancy rates up and down the country. The odds are stacked against a positive take-up of shops and as such the new reality of 48,000 empty shops is here to stay unless an alternative use or purpose can be found."
Pour citer cette ressource :
"North-South retail trade divide opens up as high streets decline", La Clé des Langues [en ligne], Lyon, ENS de LYON/DGESCO (ISSN 2107-7029), juillet 2012. Consulté le 19/04/2024. URL: https://cle.ens-lyon.fr/anglais/archives/archives-revue-de-presse/north-south-retail-trade-divide-opens-up-as-high-streets-decline