A Fifth of Britains Shops Stand Empty

doire_2

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8509876.stm

Dear oh dear

thriftybabe

Its a real shame for town centres. Just wonder what the High Street is going to look like in 10 years time?

Graham_Devon

thriftybabe wrote: »

Its a real shame for town centres. Just wonder what the High Street is going to look like in 10 years time?

You know those side alleys that used to be around....can certainly remember them when I was in my teens. Used to have clubs, the !!!!!! shop, the rough bars, and every take away known to man etc up them.

Well, will look pretty much like that!

Pennywise

thriftybabe wrote: »

Its a real shame for town centres. Just wonder what the High Street is going to look like in 10 years time?

Maybe something like how they looked a few decades ago before rampant consumerism which caused a shift away from homes and other businesses turned into nothing but shops which were then decimated by suicidal councils imposed ridiculous one way systems, expensive car parks, and who were happy to encourage out of town shopping due to back-handers etc.

Whilst it's good to see that the empty shops are being recognised as a problem, what still isn't taken seriously is the sheer volume of unused space above and below the shops - most city centre premises will have two or three floors of accommodation above (previously used as someone's home) and a cellar (previously used for storage). Just stand in your local High Street and look above the Clarks, H&M, Clintons, etc and you're more likely than not to see a derelict flat.

I foresee quite a dramatic reduction in the size of city centres - we'll end up with a concentration of shops around the "hub", whether it be a car park, bus station, or whatever, with the outlying areas becoming more empty and derelict - a sort of natural contraction as the opposite of the expansion of a few decades ago where city centres spread out. We'll then have even more areas needing redevelopment - just like the demolition of factories, warehouses etc that is ongoing in many cities at the moment.

I just hope that with redevelopment and regeneration, the planners make provision for cars by including more/better road systems to alleviate congestion hot spots and that the councils stop their persecution of car users with high car park charges.

The fact is that out of town shopping areas, and the internet are here to stay, so the need for town centre shops has reduced forever. You can't paper over the cracks by using those empty shops for charity shops, community use, etc - they either have to be demolished or redeveloped properly for a new long term use otherwise they are just delaying the inevitable.

In a town close to where I live, there is a large "suburb" which once included several very popular shopping streets - it was a mini-town in its own right with banks, and usual shops, etc., even a couple of small supermarkets, but as it was surrounded by boarding houses (a seaside town), when the UK holiday industry collapsed, the boarding houses inevitably took in some unsavoury DSS occupants, so there was an increase in crime over many years, leading to wholesale closure of the shops and it is now little more than a ghetto with only a handful of shops left (off licences mostly). The whole area needs knocking down and a new Barret or Wimpey housing estate being built but for years all we've had is the local council throwing money at silly smallscale regeneration projects, such as landscaping, sculptures, etc - we need big bold solutions, not papering over the cracks.

lemonjelly

Graham_Devon wrote: »

You know those side alleys that used to be around....can certainly remember them when I was in my teens. Used to have clubs, the !!!!!! shop, the rough bars, and every take away known to man etc up them.

Well, will look pretty much like that!

Wolverhampton (my home) & bradford are the worst affected from what I heard this morning.

The town of brierley hill was knocked for 6 when they built the merry hill centre in dudley. The fall off in trade resulted in a high street full of takeaways, charity shops, tat shops, and most noticeably a significant fall off in investment. Properties started crumbling, fly posting increased, & tatty boards covered the fronts of many empty shops.

From what I am aware (FC123 would be the best to post on this - hope she pops in this thread) LL's of commercial properties have squeezed out too many potential entrepreneurs, & priced themselves out of the market. The leases for these types of property - to me - seem far too one sided, and ultimately will cause business' in this type of environment to relocate, close & cease trading, or go bust.

Be interesting to observe the impact of the fall in commercial rents on the economy...

Added to that, the areas worst hit will see a significant fall in the levels of business rates collected. Meaning less money for the council. Meaning higher council taxes, more cuts to services, requests for additional grants from central government, or a combination of all 3!:eek:

purch

Many of Britain's towns and cities now have a fifth of their shops standing empty.

OR

A Fifth of Britains Shops Stand Empty

Inability to actually understand a news story, and get the facts right.

Dear oh dear

Cleaver

From what I can see the main issue is that most of the general public don't seem in the slight bit interested in variety, individuality, quality and personality on their high street.

Most seem to be happy with a massive, stonking Tesco or something similar that sells everything under one roof at average price and quality. And whilst it drives me mental, most seem to like the fact that these places never change and are all the same. Identikit, identikit, identikit...

Shopping in Britain has become like listening to Coldplay. Nothing exactly wrong with it, but nothing exactly right with it either. And both make you want to die of boredom.

globalds

Unfortunately it is pretty obvious why Wolverhampton has so many closed shops.

It is a mess of a town. If I still lived there I would be disgusted by the actions of the council.
This has been going on for years .It is not a lack of investment. It is a lack of cohesive and strategic planning.
They have built a market that is in the wrong place ..Moved public transport infrastructure onto the edge of the centre...The shopping centres both should have been pulled down and rebuilt.They are narrow ,low ceilinged and have no proper climate control.
At best it is a town centre fit for the 70's
It is a nightmare to park on a weekend and when you do park , you are nowhere near 3/4 of what you want.
I travel into the town about once a term for one reason because the kids school clothes are only available from one shop ..And each time I come away feeling sorry for the hard working shopkeepers and customers who are being well and truly rogerd by a bunch of incompetent bureaucrats.

Graham_Devon

Cleaver wrote: »

From what I can see the main issue is that most of the general public don't seem in the slight bit interested in variety, individuality, quality and personality on their high street.

Most seem to be happy with a massive, stonking Tesco or something similar that sells everything under one roof at average price and quality. And whilst it drives me mental, most seem to like the fact that these places never change and are all the same. Identikit, identikit, identikit...

Shopping in Britain has become like listening to Coldplay. Nothing exactly wrong with it, but nothing exactly right with it either. And both make you want to die of boredom.

I do like variety, and just the other day stopped off in a town I rarely stop in (just drive through) to have a walk up the street and get some bits and pieces.

As it was 6.30pm (ish), the shops were closed. Well most of them. But had it been 3pm, I would have had to pay to park. £1.40 for half an hour. As it was past 6 I could park for free. Not that it really helped me as the only shop I could have really used was Spar and a couple of take aways.

For me, it isn't that I am happier shopping in tescos. It's certainly easier though. Easier obviously because most of the day to day stuff I want is under one roof. But easier in that I don't have to pay in a car park designed to cram as many cars in as possible for highest revenue....so much so I had to climb across the passenger seat to get in the car once I got back as another car had wedged itself into a space bwteeen my car and another, which was about the size of a postage stamp.

Plus the fact that although I know they can, the machines do not give change, and do not take notes. Always makes me laugh. They put all these fantastic prices in, such as £0.90, £1.40, £2.15. Why are the prices always so close to rounded numbers, but never a round number which you can easily pay for with the change in your pocket!?

They know full well most will not have the change on them, so are making a killing in people paying more for the parking than is required.

I just don't like it. I don't like having to pay to shop. I don't like having to jam my car into the smallest space known to man then put a quid into the meter cus thats all I have when it should cost 40p, and the machines conviniently don't do change.

It's not the fault of all of us. It's the fault of the council using all these ammenities (which we collectively own remember) to make money.

Cleaver

Graham_Devon wrote: »

I do like variety, and just the other day stopped off in a town I rarely stop in (just drive through) to have a walk up the street and get some bits and pieces.

As it was 6.30pm (ish), the shops were closed. Well most of them. But had it been 3pm, I would have had to pay to park. £1.40 for half an hour. As it was past 6 I could park for free. Not that it really helped me as the only shop I could have really used was Spar and a couple of take aways.

For me, it isn't that I am happier shopping in tescos. It's certainly easier though. Easier obviously because most of the day to day stuff I want is under one roof. But easier in that I don't have to pay in a car park designed to cram as many cars in as possible for highest revenue....so much so I had to climb across the passenger seat to get in the car once I got back as another car had wedged itself into a space bwteeen my car and another, which was about the size of a postage stamp.

Plus the fact that although I know they can, the machines do not give change, and do not take notes. Always makes me laugh. They put all these fantastic prices in, such as £0.90, £1.40, £2.15. Why are the prices always so close to rounded numbers, but never a round number which you can easily pay for with the change in your pocket!?

They know full well most will not have the change on them, so are making a killing in people paying more for the parking than is required.

I just don't like it. I don't like having to pay to shop. I don't like having to jam my car into the smallest space known to man then put a quid into the meter cus thats all I have when it should cost 40p, and the machines conviniently don't do change.

It's not the fault of all of us. It's the fault of the council using all these ammenities (which we collectively own remember) to make money.

I know town centre shopping can be a pain and I agree with all of the above. It's a personal thing I guess, and I'm not sure of the answer. I'd like to see small, good, local businesses helped by government and local authorties and you've hit one of the nails on the head: free, decent parking would encourage people to use their local shops.

I've moaned on here before about Tescos and won't do it again, but they're pretty much in bed with the government and get a lot of help to be the dominant player (as do a lot of the supermarkets). I don't know the ins and outs of it all, but I just have the feeling that our local butchers, bakers and all other good independent shops should have more help from their local councils and the government.

Graham_Devon

I'd certainly like to see more help given to small business.

I remember all the stuff not that long ago about the government forcing the supermarkets to charge for their car parking, at £2 a time (think it was 2 quid anyway). Wonder what happened to that?