Retailers don’t like to be beside Morecambe’s seaside

THE seaside town of Morecambe has been named as the worst mid-sized town in the country for the number of vacant shops, according to a new survey.

The number of void units in the town has soared by almost 14% over the past 12 months, meaning that 30% of shops in the town now lie vacant, according to the Local Data Company.

The south Manchester town of Altrincham fared almost as badly, with vacancy rates of 29% of towns with between 200-399 shops.

In towns with less than 200 shops, seven of the 20 towns with the highest vacancy rates are based in the North West:- Runcorn (30.2% vacancy rate), Eccles (29.7%), Denton (25.6%), Droylsden (25.3%), Stretford (24.1%), Middleton (22.4%) and Swinton (21.8%).

The Local Data Company said that there is a “large and growing” North-South divide in retail property, with centres in London and the South East holding up well. Of the top 20 larger towns and cities with the highest vacancy rates, two-thirds are in the north of England including Blackpool, Bolton and Liverpool.

Matthew Hopkinson, director of the Local Data Company, said: “The sad reality is that the number of vacant shops are increasing with certain areas of the country severely impacted and unlikely to recover.

“These high streets will never revert back to what they once where and so the composition of our town centres needs to change to reflect modern shopping needs.”

Hopkinson added that the type of tenants was also changing, with more leisure units opening on the high street alongside pound shops, pawnbrokers, bookmakers, charity shops and hairdressers.

Liz Peace, chief executive of the British Property Federation, said that the higher vacancy levels raise “serious questions” about the Government’s decision to increase its tax rates on empty shops from April.

“A nation of shopkeepers is rapidly becoming a constituency of taxpayers, with the owners of property unfairly taxed on something they are not deriving income from,” she said.

“Many high streets will never return to their pre-recession days, and given the structural nature of  these changes, the challenge for local authorities is to work with businesses – including retailers and landlords – to sensibly manage this transition.”