City centre businesses lost almost year’s worth of takings to lockdown
Devastating financial impact on local high streets revealed
The bigger concern is for economically weaker places – in the North and Midlands – where Covid has actually paused their longterm decline Andrew Carter, chief executive of Centre for Cities
THE astonishing financial impact of Covid on sales in Birmingham city centre has been revealed in a new report.
The pandemic cost businesses a huge 46 weeks’ worth of potential takings due to lockdowns and restrictions, starting in March 2020, according to the Centre for Cities’ annual economic assessment of the UK’s largest urban areas.
Unsurprisingly, Birmingham’s lost sales are the biggest of any city or town centre in the West Midlands and second worst hit in the country after London.
Non-essential shops, restaurants and leisure outlets were forced to close during the pandemic resulting in a significant visitor reduction to the city.
The number of empty store fronts in Birmingham city centre has also increased by as sales fell during the pandemic.
It means almost one in five commercial units in the city centre are currently vacant, according to the Cities Outlook 2022 report.
Across the West Midlands, businesses in Coventry and Stoke city centres have also been hard hit.
But Telford’s city centre lost the fewest weeks of sales – 19 weeks – across the region during the pandemic.
Nationally, Covid has cost businesses in city and large town centres more than a third of their potential takings since March 2020, with central London, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Cardiff worst affected.
Across the 52 city and town centres studied, 2,426 commercial units have become vacant during the pandemic compared to 1,374 between 2018 and 2020.
High streets in economically weaker places have been less impacted by Covid, while in economically stronger places, business closures increased during the pandemic.
The report said the Government’s Covid support successfully stalled the decline of many struggling high streets – but was less effective in economically stronger places due to higher rents and a lack of custom from office workers.
While stronger city centres have borne the economic brunt of the pandemic, their higher levels of affluence mean that, if restrictions end and office workers return, they will recover more quickly.
“While the pandemic has been a tough time for all high streets it has levelled down more prosperous cities and towns,” said Andrew Carter, chief executive of Centre for Cities.
“Despite this, the strength of their wider local economies means they are well placed to recover quickly from the past two years. The bigger concern is for economically weaker places – primarily in the North and Midlands – where Covid-19 has actually paused their long-term decline.
“To help them avoid a wave of high street closures this year the Government must set out how it plans to increase peoples’ skills and pay to give them the income needed to sustain a thriving high street.
“Many of these places are in the so-called Red Wall so there is a political imperative for the Government to act fast, as well as an economic one.”
Centre for Cities is a research and policy institute dedicated to improving the economic success of UK cities. It is a charity which works with cities, business and Whitehall to develop and implement policy that supports urban economies.