UK high streets to lose 5,000 shops in next five years

June 4, 2013 12:04 am

UK high streets to lose 5,000 shops in next five years

By Hannah Kuchler

British high streets are forecast to lose another 5,000 shops in the next five years, as stores – caught between cautious consumers and competition from online and out-of-town rivals – lower the shutters for the last time.

Town centre shopping streets have lost 5 per cent of their outlets in the last two years, according to new research from the Local Data Company and the Saïd Business School. If this trend continues at the same rate, they project that high streets will shed another 13 per cent of stores by 2018.

Tracking the fortunes of 1,300 UK high streets over the past two years, the joint study shows the changing nature of the shops that remain, reshaping retail precincts across the country.

The research shows that almost one in ten high street stores sell discount or second-hand goods. Alongside the poundshops, pawnbrokers and convenience stores, the UK now has more nail bars than Chinese restaurants.

Matthew Hopkinson, director of LDC, said the high street was seeing its biggest period of change in the last thirty years – and the pace of transformation could even accelerate.

“It is the culmination of a lot of super centres being built, the growth of supermarkets and an increase in technology, with online shopping growing from basically zero per cent in 2000 to 12 per cent today,” he said. “We like to look at the high street a bit like a museum, but how often do we actually go there?”

The most visible sign of how the economic crisis has hit high streets are the rows of payday lenders and betting shops that have opened as other shops have been forced to close. The Labour party have said they would change planning laws so councils can refuse permission for these businesses.

The profusion of pound shops are another clear indicator of a consumer in trouble. As 99p stores compete with Poundlands, their offering is becoming more competitive and starting to rival more established chains like WH Smith and Boots.

“There is a much greater range than there was”, Mr Hopkinson said. “They’ve gone from being a market stall full of tat to running their own production lines and working with people like Procter & Gamble.”

High streets across the country are diverging, with the big chains closing shops in secondary locations to focus on wealthier areas where consumer spending has held up, and a surge in eating out lures people to town centres.

Research over the last thirty years shows areas with investment, such as Bluewater and Derby, shot up the list of top shopping centres, while those left to languish, like Croydon, tumbled down.

But all is not necessarily lost for the great British shopkeeping tradition. The rise in the number of nail bars – with health and beauty outlets up by more than 10 per cent in the last two years – and a 2 per cent increase in the number of independent retailers, could be early indicators of a more entrepreneurial high street.

Clive Black, a retail analyst at Shore Capital, said falling rents could encourage people to start their own shop and bring greater diversity to the UK’s homogenised high streets.

“Nail bars are a great example of the entrepreneurship we need to see in fashion, food and other categories,” he said. “All that’s individual and distinctive will bring footfall back into town centres.”

But he warned that such a huge change would require help from local authorities tomake the high streets pleasant places to shop – and would take time.

“It is 10, 20, 30 years away, not months. There’s a need for a struggle across the country,” he said.