One in seven high-street shops empty

THE number of high-street shops lying empty has increased in Scotland, with the proportion of vacant properties rising to almost the same level as the rest of the UK, new figures have revealed.

Having bucked the national trend earlier this year, a new survey of 56 of Scotland’s high streets shows average vacancy of just under 14 per cent, up almost 1.4 per cent from February, continuing a rising trend from mid-2010.

The UK average, however, has remained almost static with high-street vacancies of 14.3 per cent.

Among the large Scottish centres, Aberdeen has seen vacancies growing fast – up 58 per cent in the past year. Dundee, Glasgow, Perth, Ayr and Edinburgh have seen the number of empty premises rise by an average 25 per cent since June last year.

Matthew Hopkinson, director of Local Company Data, who compiled the survey, said the figures showed Scotland “was catching up with the rest of the country”.

He added: “Scotland has been hit later with regards to the recession, this is down to the different fiscal system and budgets from England and Wales. But the issue remains the same: there are too many shops, so there needs to be a readjustment.”

He said the effect of the recession, coupled with changes in shopping habits towards large malls, supermarkets and online traders, was shrinking the high street. Large brands were now looking increasingly towards the internet as their main source of income and away from bricks-and-mortar stores, while shoppers were presented with a greater choice.

Edinburgh remains the best- performing large centre in Scotland, with a vacancy rate of 10.8 per cent – though this does not stretch to Leith, which, even with an improvement of 0.3 per cent, has a vacancy rate of 19.1 per cent.

Glasgow has a vacancy rate of 20 per cent, up from about 14 per cent a year ago.

Despite a small improvement in the number of empty properties, Paisley remains the worst-performer, with 23 per cent of its high-street shops left unused.

A recent report showed that Scots have become increasingly ashamed of the run-down state of many of their once-busy centres.

Colin Borland, of the Federation of Small Businesses in Scotland, said retailers and local authorities had to rethink their approach the high street.

“It’s disappointing but it’s not surprising,” he said. “How we live, how we shop have changed greatly in the past 100, 50, even five years. The prevailing economic climate doesn’t help. So unless action is taken, these figures will continue to get worse.”

He said different sectors had to be brought into the town centres: “It cannot survive on retail alone. The way to regenerate town centres is by getting people who are economically active back into them during the day, during the week. So if you can put public-sector jobs there, then they will nip for lunch there; if they need their messages they will use local stores.

“It’s about ensuring there are office-based jobs, there are people who are more than simply retailers there. And when you have so much empty space, it shouldn’t be difficult to crack.”