Salisbury has fewest empty shops, says new survey (From Salisbury Journal)

Salisbury has fewest empty shops, says new survey

9:40am Wednesday 5th September 2012 in Headlines By Corey Ross

SALISBURY has the fewest empty shops of all the large shopping centres in the country, according to a new survey.

The city has the lowest vacancy rate in the country with 7.7 per cent, according to Local Data Company, with Cambridge and Chesterfield close behind with 8.5 per cent and 8.7 per cent.

The Salisbury figure shows the percentage of empty shops has gone down since the company last conducted the survey in February, when the vacancy rate was 8.7 per cent, despite several more shops closing in recent months.

Wiltshire councillor Richard Clewer said the report was good news for Salisbury.

“It is very tough for high street retail everywhere at the moment. The fact that Salisbury is doing better than other town centres in terms of shop vacancies is great but it is not good enough, 100 per cent occupancy is what we want and should be aiming for.

“Our parking charges are too high and we need to lower them, but the shop vacancy rates show that this is not the only factor in the success of the city. If we build on the experience of coming to Salisbury, make it more attractive, then we will make the city a bustling place long into the future.”

Some 500 town centres and 145,000 shops were visited to gather the statistics and the report defines a large shopping centre as a town or city containing more than 400 shops. Nottingham was the worst performer with a vacancy rate of 30.6 per cent.