The Local Data Company’s latest Shop Vacancy report, titled ‘The good, the bad and the (very) ugly’ reviews the shop vacancy figures of over 1,000 retail centres. Whilst the good news is that the three-fold increase in vacancy rates since 2007 has stopped, the fact remains that in the extreme centres one in three shops stands vacant yet others remain at pre recession levels. The short and medium view of this report is that this is unlikely to improve significantly due to the current economic climate, the rise of alternative sales channels and the number of shops the country has.

Town centre vacancy rates in Great Britain have stabilized at 14.5% during the first half of 2011. The North-South divide apparent at a centre level is reinforced when looking at a regional analysis, with London having an average vacancy rate of just over 10% and the North West at 16%.

All the southern regions see an average vacancy at or below 11% while the Midlands and North range from just under 13% in the East Midlands to 16% in the North West.

The top ten worst-performing large centres are in the West Midlands and the North while seven out of the top ten best large centres are in the South.

Only 7% of towns showed that they had ‘weathered the storm’ of the financial crises and they included Guildford, Camden, Bath, Cambridge and Cardiff.