The Number of UK High Street Shop Closures Reaches Thousands

Thursday, May 23rd, 2019

Reports from the new data scrutinizing the high street crisis claim that the number of empty shops has soared to more than 7500 since the previous year.

Analysis of the top 650 shopping locations in the UK has revealed that the rising number of barbers, beauty salons, cafes, vaping stores, and restaurants offset has been caused by the closure of banks, fashion shops, and estate agents.

The number of new businesses such as restaurants and pubs has decreased by 4.4 % to 43,278. On the other hand, shutdowns have increased slightly to 50,828, which articulates a 37% rise in net closures in contrast to 2018.

Several popular chains have been affected as Maplin, PoundWorld Multiyork and Toys R Us gained administrative rights. Meanwhile, Carpetright, Mothercare, and New Look have been forced to seek legal terms with their respective landlords to decrease their rent bills and shut their stores.

High-quality restaurants including Carluccio’s, Prezzo group, Jamie’s Italian, burger chain Byron with their rival Gourmet Burger Kitchen have also been pushed to close a large number of their outlets due to the rising costs, varying of consumer habits and slow spending.

Lucy Stainton from LDC says that 2018 was an unexpected year of change, which resulted in the sustained challenges of legacy brands colliding with new startups. These changes have made it hard for operators and business owners.

In 2019 (this year) there has been no reported let up, with Arcadia empire and Debenhams expected to ask for approval from their landlords to close dozens of their stores. Marks & Spencer is also expected to close 100 shops by 2022.

A rise in operating costs and Brexit’s uncertainty has contributed to the increase in rents and business rates.

A switch to online shopping by consumers and a significant shift at how they are spending their leisure time during holidays rather than visiting shopping centers are also contributing factors to the rise in costs.

UK’s biggest retailer, Tesco, urges the government to impose a 2% online sales tax to cover up for the cut in business rates for shops, saying that competition between physical retailers and their online counterparts is unfair.

The government has only taken restricted action towards this issue despite parliamentary inquiries.

Shopping centers were hit hardest last year with a drop of 2.2% of outlet number compared to a 1.4% fall by traditional shopping sectors.

Landlords have started thinking of better ways to use the unoccupied space by redeveloping them to homes, gyms or warehouses.

Vacant units that have been demolished, divided into smaller outlets or converted to other uses has risen to 3,577 from 2,706 in 2017.

Wrap Up

The significant rise in the restructuring of retail space across 2018 shows that place managers, landlords, and councils are taking action to critically understand how much retail stock is available in the market and how much is required. This trend is expected to increase in the coming months, which will redefine not just high streets, but retail parks and shopping centers.