The picture across Great Britain
Britain’s vacancy drops to 13.2% in December. The overall retail and leisure vacancy rate has remained at 11.8%.

2014 has been a busy and fruitful year for The Local Data Company. Throughout the year we have hosted 6 events across the UK that attracted over 685 attendees. These events would not have been a success without the contributions from panelists and attendees so thank you all for your contribution.

British Government figures from 2012 show that UK wholesale and retail trade contributed 16% of economic output and 16% (4.3 million people) of employment. More up to date data from April 2014 shows that consumers in the UK spent around £27 billion and of every £1 spent (online or in shops but excluding petrol stations) £0.47 was spent in food stores and £0.46 was spent in non-food stores with the remainder spent in market stores.

MARKET UPDATE

Britain’s vacancy rate fell in August to 13.3% from 13.4% in July. This is its lowest level since June 2010.

The overall retail and leisure vacancy rate also decreased from 11.9% to 11.8% 

Britain’s shop vacancy rate in June remains stable at its lowest level since June 2010. 

Britain’s shop vacancy rate has remained stable at 13.4% in June. The picture remains stable across both retail and leisure uses which is reflected in the overall vacancy rate remaining at 11.9% in June.

LDC publishes today its latest national vacancy rates from May 2014. The simple answer is that the last six months have seen a progressive improvement in the shop vacancy rate for Great Britain. This is significant, as we have not seen such a prolonged period of consistent reduction in the number of empty shops in our town centres.

The fashion industry is worth £26billion to the UK's economy, which is an increase of 22% since 2009 (British Fashion Council) but what is driving the increase in profit? According to research by Oxford Economics the number of jobs in the industry is down by 2.4% since 4 years ago, but with an increase in wholesale production as well as other factors such as tourism and financial services playing a part, the fashion industry is still booming. 

Deidre Hipwell in The Times recently wrote (27 March 2014) ‘The making of bricks in Britain has fallen so steeply that the country has the equivalent of only about two months’ of supply in stock, an industry leader has warned.’

The head of Michelmersh Brick Holdings said that a “difficult five years” meant that brick stock levels had fallen from 1.1 billion bricks to 332 million, adding that “you can’t just switch that production back on overnight”.