How retail squeeze has hit small independents
BRITAIN’S high streets have seen a fall in the number of independent shops that are opening.
A report by the Local Data Company and the British Independent Retailers Association found the number of independent shops increased by just 476 – or 0.18 per cent – in 2015, compared with 559 – or 0.21 per cent the year before.
In total there are 270,121 independent retailers in the UK. A total of 34,288 opened and 33,812 closed last year, compared with 2014, when 34,883 opened and 34,324 closed. Women’s clothes shops, pubs, newsagents, Indian restaurants and florists saw the most closures.
Barbers, cafes and tearooms and tobacconists saw the biggest growth in independent retail, with hair and beauty salons and restaurants and bars also making the top five.
Telford in Shropshire had the fewest independent shops, while Sparkhill in Birmingham and Portobello Road in West London had the most. Only 5 per cent of shops on Portobello Road were chains. But London showed the greatest fall of independents in 2015, followed by the East of England, while Wales and Yorkshire and the Humber saw the greatest rise.
According to LDC director Matthew Hopkinson, independent retailers still occupied 65 per cent of all units, but high streets faced mounting challenges, including the move of anchor retailers such as M&S, Next and River Island to out-of-town shopping centres, meaning lower footfall for shops left on high streets.
Michael Weedon of Bira said the report showed a ‘powerful rebalancing’ from product-based retail to services, leisure and convenience retailers.
Bira welcomed the move in last month’s Budget to exempt 600,000 premises from paying business rates. But Bira chief executive Alan Hawkins said: ‘The world of retail is still changing at a breakneck pace.’
Tomorrow Parliament’s Communities and Local Government Committee will hold an evidence session on newly-devolved business rates.