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Wales Online
10-07-2025
- Business
- Wales Online
New report shows Welsh city has most empty shops in the UK
New report shows Welsh city has most empty shops in the UK A think-tank report has said Newport has the highest shop vacancy rate in the UK and that the city's high street needs to be remodelled to tackle an oversupply of retail space Newport tops the UK's city centre shop vacancy rate, according to latest research (Image: WalesOnline/Rob Browne ) Newport tops the UK's city centre shop vacancy rate, according to latest research. A new study by the think-tank Centre for Cities states there is a stark contrast in the health of Britain's high streets with Newport leading the list of 62 cities and towns at a 19% vacancy rate, more than double that of London's 8.5%, which is the lowest. The report details that Newport, along with Wigan and Middlesbrough - all suffering from over 14% unoccupied shops - has over double the retail space per person compared to Brighton and Liverpool, where less than 10% of shops are vacant. With 2.9 shops per 1,000 residents in its area, Newport outstrips London which has 0.8. The research also highlights that nearly 5% of high street expenditure escapes Newport and is spent in Cardiff. Never miss a Newport story by subscribing to our newsletter here At number nine Swansea displays a 15.4% vacancy rate with 2.1 shops serving each 1,000 people in its catchment, yet it profits from being relatively self-contained without significant spending leaks to neighbouring areas. By contrast Cardiff, ranked 33rd, shows a 12.4% vacancy rate and sustains 1.1 shops per 1,000 individuals. The Centre for Cities' information on Newport states: "The centre of Newport has both the highest vacancy rate and the largest amount of retail space per head of catchment of any centre. "The local authority reports though that this has improved over the last year in particular. After having remained constant for around a decade the vacancy rate has fallen by around 20%, with much of the change the result of start-ups taking up space. Footfall is up too. In the first quarter of this year it was 10% higher than in the first quarter of 2019." Article continues below According to Centre for Cities, high streets that have successfully adapted to the challenges posed by out-of-town shopping and online retail have shifted from retail towards food, replacing redundant shops with cafés and restaurants. In wealthier areas like York and Edinburgh, £1 in every £4 is spent on food. In Bradford, Stoke and Wigan, it's approximately £1 in every £10. This shift mirrors the performance of the broader local economy: places with a high proportion of well-paid jobs generate more high street spending. In less affluent areas the lack of spending power means this transition hasn't occurred. Centre for Cities suggests that city and town centres with high vacancy rates should be reconfigured to address the excess of retail space. The report states the Welsh Government and local authorities should focus on increasing the size of their city centre catchments by building more homes in inner-city locations, which are in demand, rather than developing on the outskirts of town. The think-tank also advises cities and towns to be pragmatic about their visitor strategies, suggesting that prioritising making city centres appealing to residents will naturally lead to visitor appeal. Andrew Carter, chief executive of Centre for Cities, explained: "The high street has long been the bellwether of the local economy. Shuttered-up shops influence people's opinions about how successful their areas are. "Our research shows the high street isn't failing everywhere. Where it is, the cause is not just cosmetic, it is economic. Policies relating to shopfronts, rents or parking miss the bigger picture. "City centres that struggle are over-supplied with shops and under-supplied with people. If local residents don't have money to spend or a reason to be in the centre, high streets suffer – no matter what interventions are made. Article continues below "It is possible to revive the fortunes of struggling high streets. But it will require local and national governments to start by fixing the economy, and not just focussing on the high street itself."
Business Times
17-06-2025
- Business
- Business Times
Britain's housing splurge is long overdue
[LONDON] The £39 billion (S$67.7 billion) boost that Britain's Labour government has announced for affordable housing still leaves its ambition of building 1.5 million homes over five years looking like a stretch. That shouldn't obscure the broader point that the country has underspent for decades on accommodation for its most disadvantaged. Any attempt to reverse this trend has the potential to pay for itself in wider economic benefits and even lead to a healthier private property market. The state's retreat from providing housing began with Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s and gained added impetus after 2010 with the Conservative-led government's efforts to cut expenditure and repair the public finances following the global financial crisis. Rather than building homes, the government aimed to steer financial support to low-income households to enable them to rent in the private market or from not-for-profit housing associations. The guiding philosophy was that a more market-based approach would encourage a more aspirational society; public housing, by contrast, kept people caught in dependency. The observed outcomes haven't been kind to this theory. The market has failed to generate adequate supply, leading to a shortfall of homes estimated at more than 4 million by the London-based Centre for Cities think tank. Meanwhile, the presence of more former social-housing tenants competing for private accommodation has helped to drive up rents, underpinning a boom in property values that has made home ownership unaffordable for many. A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU Tuesday, 12 pm Property Insights Get an exclusive analysis of real estate and property news in Singapore and beyond. Sign Up Sign Up The government shelled out £35 billion in housing benefit last financial year – triple in real terms what it was paying at the start of the 1990s. And yet the number of homeless has soared, put at 354,000 people as of December by the charity Shelter. The self-defeating absurdity of the system is that the state has abdicated responsibility at one end while retaining it at the other. Having pushed people into the private market, the central government can (as it did in the 2010s) squeeze their benefit payments to save money – but if, as a consequence, a family can no longer pay the rent and are evicted by their private landlord, it becomes the responsibility of the local authority to rehouse them. The cost rebounds on the state. In the worst cases, for lack of alternatives, people can be placed in expensive and unsuitable short-term bed-and-breakfast hotels and hostels. Spending on these rose more than fivefold to £732 million between 2018 and 2024, according to a February report by researchers at the London School of Economics. It's a false economy that costs British taxpayers more than it would simply to fund appropriate levels of public housing in the first place. The government could save £1.5 billion a year by investing £5 billion annually to build more affordable homes, a 2023 study by University College London researchers found. The report estimated the costs of homelessness, including housing people in temporary accommodation, at £6.5 billion a year. This goes beyond financial calculations. The human and economic costs of housing policies must be considered. Safe and permanent shelter is fundamental to physical and mental well-being. A child living in a bed-and-breakfast hotel can't be expected to learn well at school. An adult won't be able give his or her best at work. Britain has issues with stagnant productivity, high rates of long-term sickness and economic inactivity, and poor educational outcomes for socially deprived children. How many of these comorbidities can be traced back to insufficient and substandard housing? Addressing the problem might just, rather than fostering a culture of welfare reliance, make the UK a more productive (as well as happier) country. Paradoxically, the advent of a large-scale, state-funded social-housing construction programme could also improve the functioning of the private market. For one thing, it will relieve pressure on rents. It could also be used to spur innovation and support small and medium-sized developers that have been increasingly squeezed out over the past four decades. The UK housing market is dominated by an oligopolistic group of large developers and is resistant to change; new-build quality is often perceived as poor. Counter-cyclical state spending can balance out the boom-and-bust property cycles that smaller builders are least able to withstand. Design of Labour's programme will be important. The government describes its 10-year funding plan as the biggest cash injection into 'social and affordable housing' in 50 years. Though there's some blurring between the categories, there's a difference. Affordable rental housing is charged at up to 80 per cent of the private market rate in the area. Social rents are generally around 50 per cent to 60 per cent of the average local rate, though this can be as low as 30 per cent in London. Only social housing is genuinely affordable because rents are set by a formula tied to local incomes, according to Shelter. This is where the need is most acute, yet social rented housing has shrunk as a share of the total. A parliamentary committee concluded last year that England needs at least 90,000 net additional social rent homes a year, while the UCL study projected building 72,000. Even if the entirety of Labour's programme was devoted to social housing, it wouldn't come close to those figures. In broad outline, though, the plan addresses an obvious market failure and is long overdue. As far as financial stability permits, the government should do more. BLOOMBERG Matthew Brooker is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering business and infrastructure.
STV News
16-06-2025
- Business
- STV News
Glasgow region should have directly-elected mayor, suggests think tank
The greater Glasgow region needs a directly-elected mayor and a devolution deal to avoid falling behind other large UK cities, a think tank has recommended. The Centre for Cities said Glasgow could be missing out on billions in funding without the changes. A report, The Missing Piece In The Big Cities' Jigsaw, claimed Scotland's GDP would be 4.6% larger than it is now if Glasgow's economy performed in line with the average for cities its size. In England there are ten combined local authorities which have a metro mayor. The process of local devolution began a decade ago with Greater Manchester. Andrew Carter, chief executive of Centre for Cities, said: 'The UK is taking a city-region led approach to economic growth because cities are at the frontier of innovation and economic growth. 'Glasgow has an important role in this, with the potential to make an added economic contribution the size of Scotland's oil and gas sector if it harnesses its size to generate more cutting-edge activity. 'English cities with metro mayors have in the last week been allocated billions to invest in local public transport networks and R&D. 'Scotland, too, needs its big cities to make a greater contribution to the economy. 'A directly-elected mayor for the Glasgow city region would bring much-needed leadership, accountability and the ability to shape growth around the city's needs.' Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes said: 'Glasgow is key to driving the Scottish economy, which is why the Scottish Government is partly funding the city-region's £1.13 billion growth deal. 'We have also supported Glasgow city region's £160 million investment zone, with additional funding for electric vehicle infrastructure and skills development. 'We are working with partners to explore ways of devolving further powers to regional economic partnerships, including Glasgow city region, with the aim of presenting options to Ministers by the end of this Parliament.' A spokesperson for Ian Murray said: 'We have been clear that Scottish regions would benefit hugely from elected mayors, just as English regions have. 'For too long power in Scotland has been held at Holyrood – we need to push devolution back to local communities.' Get all the latest news from around the country Follow STV News Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
Glasgow Times
16-06-2025
- Business
- Glasgow Times
Think tank: Glasgow should have directly-elected mayor
The Centre for Cities said Glasgow could be missing out on billions in funding without the changes. A report, The Missing Piece In The Big Cities' Jigsaw, claimed Scotland's GDP would be 4.6% larger than it is now if Glasgow's economy performed in line with the average for cities of its size. In England, there are 10 combined local authorities which have a metro mayor. The process of local devolution began a decade ago with Greater Manchester. READ MORE: Major tenement refurbishment completed in Glasgow's West End READ MORE: 'Cutting-edge' technology doubles Glasgow's mobile network speeds Andrew Carter, chief executive of Centre for Cities, said: 'The UK is taking a city-region led approach to economic growth because cities are at the frontier of innovation and economic growth. 'Glasgow has an important role in this, with the potential to make an added economic contribution the size of Scotland's oil and gas sector if it harnesses its size to generate more cutting-edge activity. 'English cities with metro mayors have, in the last week, been allocated billions to invest in local public transport networks and R&D. 'Scotland, too, needs its big cities to make a greater contribution to the economy. 'A directly-elected mayor for the Glasgow city region would bring much-needed leadership, accountability and the ability to shape growth around the city's needs.' READ MORE: Glasgow's rank on UK city wellness list revealed Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes said: 'Glasgow is key to driving the Scottish economy, which is why the Scottish Government is partly funding the city-region's £1.13 billion growth deal. 'We have also supported Glasgow city region's £160 million investment zone, with additional funding for electric vehicle infrastructure and skills development. 'We are working with partners to explore ways of devolving further powers to regional economic partnerships, including Glasgow city region, with the aim of presenting options to Ministers by the end of this Parliament.'
The National
16-06-2025
- Business
- The National
Glasgow region needs 'elected mayor and devolution deal'
The Centre for Cities said Glasgow could be missing out on billions in funding without the changes. A report, The Missing Piece In The Big Cities' Jigsaw, claimed Scotland's GDP would be 4.6% larger than it is now if Glasgow's economy performed in line with the average for cities its size. In England, there are 10 combined local authorities that have a metro mayor. The process of local devolution began a decade ago with Greater Manchester. READ MORE: COMMENT: Why Labour's offer of Scottish Andy Burnhams is not what we need It is not the first time a think tank has suggested the idea. In 2022 Reform Scotland, now named Enlighten after confusion with Nigel Farage's party, called for elected mayors, who could then meet with the First Minister every three months. Andrew Carter, chief executive of Centre for Cities, said: 'The UK is taking a city-region led approach to economic growth because cities are at the frontier of innovation and economic growth. 'Glasgow has an important role in this, with the potential to make an added economic contribution the size of Scotland's oil and gas sector if it harnesses its size to generate more cutting-edge activity. 'English cities with metro mayors have in the last week been allocated billions to invest in local public transport networks and R&D. 'Scotland, too, needs its big cities to make a greater contribution to the economy. 'A directly-elected mayor for the Glasgow city region would bring much-needed leadership, accountability and the ability to shape growth around the city's needs.' Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes said: 'Glasgow is key to driving the Scottish economy, which is why the Scottish Government is partly funding the city-region's £1.13 billion growth deal. 'We have also supported Glasgow city region's £160 million investment zone, with additional funding for electric vehicle infrastructure and skills development. READ MORE: UK must not look away from Gaza genocide amid Iran-Israel war - Amnesty 'We are working with partners to explore ways of devolving further powers to regional economic partnerships, including Glasgow city region, with the aim of presenting options to Ministers by the end of this Parliament.' A spokesperson for Ian Murray said: 'We have been clear that Scottish regions would benefit hugely from elected mayors, just as English regions have. 'For too long power in Scotland has been held at Holyrood – we need to push devolution back to local communities.'
