Britain’s shop vacancy remains at 13% in April

Britain’s shop vacancy rate has remained at 13% in April, a level which, before March, had not been seen since 2010. 

This is according to new figures released today from the Local Data Company (LDC) which found that the overall retail and leisure vacancy rate also remained the same as the previous month at 11.6%.

Matthew Hopkinson, director at LDC, said: “Nothing of note to report in April with regards vacancy rates except ‘steady as she goes’. An ongoing trend which is encouraging is that we are continuing to see retail and leisure premises that have been vacant being demolished, redeveloped or having a change of use.

“Over 60 premises were changed in this way during April – small to the overall stock but shows proactive place management in my view.”