Latest news with #emptyshops
Yahoo
12-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Why does this city have so many empty shops?
It may be Bradford's City of Culture year but, according to a report from the Centre for Cities, the city has more empty shops than nearly every city in the UK, and double those in London and Cambridge. The think tank report claims Newport, Bradford and Blackpool have the highest retail vacancy rate, while London, Cambridge and Oxford have the lowest. So, why is the city so empty, what is being done about it and is UK City of Culture 2025 the boost Bradford needs? John Varey and his family have been running Blossoms Florist from a unit in Market Street for nine months. "It started off as a florist but we're evolving to fit in with the Bradford community," he says. "We're also opening up in Darley Street Market. We're opening a plant emporium up there [and] this shop here is going to be turned into a flower cafe. We're evolving." He suggests the city's empty shop problem could be minimised if the council took more of a role in deciding which businesses were based in which units. "If all these businesses were owned by Bradford Council it wouldn't end up like this," he says. "Because they're privately owned and the guys who own the businesses just want to fill them, they don't care what gets in them. If we had control of what goes in here and the council could sign it off, you stand a better chance." But he adds the City of Culture year has been a boost, and he hopes the city can build on the momentum. He says: "Ever since the City of Culture signs have gone up, we're getting quite a lot of tourists coming in here and we're changing things into gifts for tourism promoting Bradford. "Bradford Council has done an excellent job. What they're doing now is not for today as such. Rome wasn't built in a day. Bradford wasn't built in a day. But it's evolving. "This year is a good standard now to build on." Jonny Noble, chief executive of Bradford BID, says the news that Bradford has a lot of empty shops is not exactly new for those who know the city. "I've lived in Bradford all my life and it has been recognised for some time to be honest," he says. "We've got a lot of not fit-for-purpose retail. In the 1980s and 1990s, obviously Bradford was much more vibrant, shall we say, than it might be classed as now, or the retail scene, generally, in the UK was." Independent retail expert Catherine Shuttleworth agrees. "The landlords of Bradford have got to get real and rethink the space, invest in it, and the council have got to work with the landlords to make it somewhere attractive for people to come and open shops," she says. "Fundamentally, for a modern retailer, you need easy access. "You need air-conditioned shops, you need buildings you can get in and out of, and you need footfall." The report backs their claims, advising one of the reasons Bradford has a high rate of vacant units is too much space. On Thursday morning in the Kirkgate Centre - which is earmarked for demolition but is yet to have an exact date - there are empty units everywhere. And in the Broadway shopping centre, though busier, there are a considerable number of empty shops. A number of retailers, who did not want to speak on the record, say this is because the Broadway rents are too high and the closure of the Kirkgate Centre is affecting the businesses in that area of the city. Mr Noble says BID does its own research into vacancy rates, and that number is starting to drop. "I don't really like the phrase shrinking the city centre, but it's making it fit for purpose and making sure the right offers are there," he says. "We had far too much not fit-for-purpose space that was never going to be brought back into use [as] retail space and, with changing shopping habits, we need an experiential offer where people can touch and feel and smell and see." He says the city needs to shift away from mainstream retailers. "Retail used to be everything. You'd look down every street around the country and see all the same signs. Well, that is not happening anymore. "One thing I would be really keen to see is more independents - they are the life and soul of a city centre." Si Cunningham, chairperson of Bradford Civic Society, says the drop in retail is to do with online shopping. "There's an issue with wider national and international trends and retailers are not needing as many branches anymore, so they are consolidating the bricks and mortar branches into bigger regional centres. "We do risk cities like Bradford, that are not regional centres, losing out because of that, but that probably highlights why it's important for Bradford to have a really strong independent offer." Ms Shuttleworth believes part of Bradford's problem is its close proximity to Leeds and out-of-town retail hubs. "We've seen some really high-profile names pull out of Bradford, particularly Marks & Spencer. I think the reason for it is the provision of shopping outside of town," she says. "Places like Leeds' White Rose Shopping Centre pull a lot of people in from Bradford. "These are easy places to go to, easy places to get in and out of. Bradford's really hard to get in and out of. "Leeds has a fantastic retail offer and is super easy to access either by bus or train." Mr Cunningham says the answer is fewer shops, more restaurants and more culture. "We need to make sure we're promoting things like food and drink and cultural experiences rather than retail," he says. "If we just follow the retail trends internationally then we're always going to end up with high vacancy rates." Mr Noble says that shift is already under way, with the opening of Darley Street Market and more cultural venues across the city, such as Loading Bay and Bradford Live. "We've got a fantastic offer and the place has never looked as good as it currently does," he says. "I am absolutely confident that vacancy rates will drop significantly over the next couple of years and get back to where we feel we should be." Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North. 'We're finally here,' say traders as market opens Visitor numbers to Bradford rise - but are they spending money? Shoppers dismayed as Bradford M&S ceases trading Bradford BID Centre for Cities
BBC News
12-07-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Why does Bradford have so many empty shops?
It may be Bradford's City of Culture year but, according to a report from the Centre for Cities, the city has more empty shops than nearly every city in the UK, and double those in London and think tank report claims Newport, Bradford and Blackpool have the highest retail vacancy rate, while London, Cambridge and Oxford have the why is the city so empty, what is being done about it and is UK City of Culture 2025 the boost Bradford needs? John Varey and his family have been running Blossoms Florist from a unit in Market Street for nine months."It started off as a florist but we're evolving to fit in with the Bradford community," he says."We're also opening up in Darley Street Market. We're opening a plant emporium up there [and] this shop here is going to be turned into a flower cafe. We're evolving." He suggests the city's empty shop problem could be minimised if the council took more of a role in deciding which businesses were based in which units."If all these businesses were owned by Bradford Council it wouldn't end up like this," he says."Because they're privately owned and the guys who own the businesses just want to fill them, they don't care what gets in them. If we had control of what goes in here and the council could sign it off, you stand a better chance."But he adds the City of Culture year has been a boost, and he hopes the city can build on the says: "Ever since the City of Culture signs have gone up, we're getting quite a lot of tourists coming in here and we're changing things into gifts for tourism promoting Bradford."Bradford Council has done an excellent job. What they're doing now is not for today as such. Rome wasn't built in a day. Bradford wasn't built in a day. But it's evolving."This year is a good standard now to build on." Jonny Noble, chief executive of Bradford BID, says the news that Bradford has a lot of empty shops is not exactly new for those who know the city."I've lived in Bradford all my life and it has been recognised for some time to be honest," he says."We've got a lot of not fit-for-purpose retail. In the 1980s and 1990s, obviously Bradford was much more vibrant, shall we say, than it might be classed as now, or the retail scene, generally, in the UK was."Independent retail expert Catherine Shuttleworth agrees."The landlords of Bradford have got to get real and rethink the space, invest in it, and the council have got to work with the landlords to make it somewhere attractive for people to come and open shops," she says."Fundamentally, for a modern retailer, you need easy access. "You need air-conditioned shops, you need buildings you can get in and out of, and you need footfall."The report backs their claims, advising one of the reasons Bradford has a high rate of vacant units is too much Thursday morning in the Kirkgate Centre - which is earmarked for demolition but is yet to have an exact date - there are empty units in the Broadway shopping centre, though busier, there are a considerable number of empty shops.A number of retailers, who did not want to speak on the record, say this is because the Broadway rents are too high and the closure of the Kirkgate Centre is affecting the businesses in that area of the city. Mr Noble says BID does its own research into vacancy rates, and that number is starting to drop."I don't really like the phrase shrinking the city centre, but it's making it fit for purpose and making sure the right offers are there," he says."We had far too much not fit-for-purpose space that was never going to be brought back into use [as] retail space and, with changing shopping habits, we need an experiential offer where people can touch and feel and smell and see."He says the city needs to shift away from mainstream retailers."Retail used to be everything. You'd look down every street around the country and see all the same signs. Well, that is not happening anymore."One thing I would be really keen to see is more independents - they are the life and soul of a city centre."Si Cunningham, chairperson of Bradford Civic Society, says the drop in retail is to do with online shopping."There's an issue with wider national and international trends and retailers are not needing as many branches anymore, so they are consolidating the bricks and mortar branches into bigger regional centres."We do risk cities like Bradford, that are not regional centres, losing out because of that, but that probably highlights why it's important for Bradford to have a really strong independent offer." Does Leeds take all the shoppers? Ms Shuttleworth believes part of Bradford's problem is its close proximity to Leeds and out-of-town retail hubs."We've seen some really high-profile names pull out of Bradford, particularly Marks & Spencer. I think the reason for it is the provision of shopping outside of town," she says."Places like Leeds' White Rose Shopping Centre pull a lot of people in from Bradford."These are easy places to go to, easy places to get in and out of. Bradford's really hard to get in and out of. "Leeds has a fantastic retail offer and is super easy to access either by bus or train." Mr Cunningham says the answer is fewer shops, more restaurants and more culture."We need to make sure we're promoting things like food and drink and cultural experiences rather than retail," he says. "If we just follow the retail trends internationally then we're always going to end up with high vacancy rates."Mr Noble says that shift is already under way, with the opening of Darley Street Market and more cultural venues across the city, such as Loading Bay and Bradford Live."We've got a fantastic offer and the place has never looked as good as it currently does," he says."I am absolutely confident that vacancy rates will drop significantly over the next couple of years and get back to where we feel we should be." Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
BBC News
03-07-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Grants to bring empty Oswestry town centre shops back into use
Businesses looking to set up in premises vacant for more than six months could get a grant of up to £5, money could be used to refurbish and fit out sites, as well as for signage and improving accessibility, said Oswestry Town Council, which added 11% of the town centre's shops were classed as is accepting applications until the end of next month from businesses and Oswestry had fewer empty retail premises than most towns, the council would like to see vacant shops relet, it said. Empty retail units and the condition of retail properties "are seen as important indicators of the health of a high street and are a problem nationally", the authority amount of money available for the scheme overall is £25,000 and there will be a second bidding round in the autumn for any funding not allocated in the summer grants of up to £5,000 have been made available thanks to the council's Breathing New Life into Empty Properties initiative and money must be spent by the end of March next mayor of Oswestry, Rosie Radford, said: "We're keen to continue to support businesses and start-ups at a very local level." Follow BBC Shropshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
BBC News
17-06-2025
- Business
- BBC News
High street empty shops action needed, expert says
The challenge posed by empty shops in Wales is "too big for the tools we are using", a property expert has Sutton, a chartered surveyor, said a lack of coordinated action meant cities such as Newport - which in 2021 was found to have more empty shops than any other city in the UK - had Sutton said the Welsh government and councils needed to be "heavily involved" in solving the problem, pointing to towns like Caernarfon which had found ways to Welsh government said it was working with trade bodies and trade unions to find solutions, while Newport council said footfall in the city was rising. Despite millions of pounds of public funding and a number of reports into the issue over the years, many Welsh high streets have continued to decline.A recent study found most small businesses wanted to be in town centres, but many were looking for office or workshop space rather than Street, Newport's main shopping street, remains a patchwork of boarded up premises and vacant despite calls for action, many visibly empty shops are not available for are tied up with long leases or are held by sometimes anonymous landlords who are unwilling to rent them out. Mr Sutton said the problem was not a lack of ideas but a lack of coordinated action."We don't need another report," he said. "We need implementation."Mr Sutton, the former chair of Confederation of British Industry (CBI) Wales, said the sometimes confused ownership of empty shops also restricted options."Our retail centres are probably the location with the most mixed ownerships," he said."Trying to masterplan regeneration is incredibly difficult when ownership is so fragmented."He said larger empty stores needed to be refurbished "and perhaps subdivided down to smaller units" to attract new tenants. Away from Commercial Street, independent businesses who have revitalised one of the city's arcades said Newport should not be judged on the state of its main shopping street."I think it's kind of like one big family in this arcade. It feels a community, as opposed to a bunch of just separate shops," said Jax Jones, who co-owns the Mythos tattoo training at another shop, he opened his own studio in the city centre but felt frustrated that the wider strategy in Newport appeared to be on enticing the big brands."Newport, at least for the last 10 years or so, has really put that focus on big business to the detriment of independents," he said the decline of stores like Debenhams provided an opportunity to support smaller local businesses."Given the chance, we can really see that independent business can thrive," he added, with "even a taxidermy shop" doing well in the arcade. 'Look beyond the empty shops' Newport City Council disputed the 2021 Centre for Cities data that showed the city had the UK's worst empty shops problem and said it was working to reduce vacancies and support independent businesses."Transforming the city centre's fortunes is not something that can happen overnight or by the council on its own," said councillor James council said footfall was rising - up 2.6% in 2024 - and nearly two thirds of city centre units were now occupied by independents. It also pointed to successful regeneration projects like Newport Market, and urged people to "look beyond the empty shops" to see the progress being made. Caernarfon, in Gwynedd, is among the town centres which are thriving despite the setbacks elsewhere."It's a small town with huge character," said Sue Kirk, whose souvenir and toy shop is in the centre of said the ease of buying online meant she had needed to "find things that are not readily available on the internet"."And if you can fill that gap and appeal to your customer base, you have a winning formula," she local Business Improvement District (BID) in Caernarfon works to keep shopkeepers informed of events and address problems Ms Kirk, it comes down to a simple idea: "Collaboration.""[There is a] strong connection between business owners, so that if we have a problem or if we have an idea, we can move together," she Strain, manager of the BID, said the lack of a shopping centre in Caernarfon had allowed the high street to thrive."We don't have a shopping centre. People might think it's a bad thing, but I think it's a very good thing," said Mr Strain."We've got a lot of commercial properties that are smaller, easier to fill and ideal for the many independent businesses that we've got here in town."Mr Sutton said other towns across Wales would need support in order to achieve similar results."We need local leadership," he said, "but also the local authority and Welsh government need to be heavily involved in this, and they really need to drive it forward."He said there was also the opportunity for "regeneration companies and development corporations" to coordinate and tackle empty added a change in how businesses were taxed could make a difference."We should be incentivising private sector development through wider use classes and property taxation reform," Mr Sutton Welsh government said in May that it was considering cutting business rates for smaller retail shops to help them compete with online retailers and to create "more vibrant high streets".A Welsh government spokesperson said retail was "experiencing a period of challenge and change"."Our retail action plan, developed in partnership with sector representatives, sets out the actions we are taking to ensure a successful, innovative, sustainable and resilient retail presence in Wales that offers fair, secure and rewarding work."The spokesperson also said the government's transforming towns programme would provide £40m for 2025 and 2026 to develop town centres and "breathe new life" into spaces.
