And audiophile retailers aren't immune from this.

[Neil McCauley]

"More than one in 10 town and city centre shops across the UK were vacant at the end of May, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) has said.

Its study found the average vacancy rate was 11.2%, rising to 17.1% in Northern Ireland, the worst affected nation or region.

Wales was next, with a rate of 13.4%, with the north of England on 13.1%"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14611592


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[Folkboy]

There's a shopping centre in my home town (Southend) and it was recently turned from an open air grey concrete eyesore to fully covered, with marble floors and automatic doors. Trouble was, the consortium that bought the site decided they didn't want most of the old shops there so they got rid of them (like the excellent comic store and one of the most popular pubs in town) and pushed the rent prices up for everyone else. This means over half of the stores lie empty and apart from a couple of cafes, the others are big chains (Boots, Wilkinsons, Next). With the recessession, they aren't going to fill the empty shops at all.

Then again, Southend high street doesn't fare much better.

[DSJR]

They did the same to Aylesbury some years ago, the c1967 Friars Square being judged too horrid and "concrete" for the yuppy era.

Howard, my "HiFi Virginity in the west end" and your thorn in the side (in the late 70's) looks to have finally closed its doors. I have no other info, but the website has gone and others have conformed thay've probably gone...

[Macca]

Same around here - if you wanted to rent a shop you would be spoiled for choice - of course the rents are too high and the Council will be onto you in a flash demanding exhorbitant business rates out of all proportion to the size and location of the premises.

it's interesting that they are nothing like as quick when it comes to sorting out the things you have already paid them for like the street lighting and the refuse collection...

The simple premise that they fail to grasp (probably because they are an idiot bunch of Marxist twonks) is that lots of empty shops reduces traffic to the area and causes the remaining businesses to fail, leading to a ghost town. Then when qustioned about the dire state of the town centre they blame it on 'lack of funding'.

Cretins - to - a - man :steam:

[Lodgesound]

Shop rents and rates should be forcibly capped by the Government and the Councils at least for a 5 year period to at least attempt to bring trading back into the high street....

The head of my local council is paid more than ONE THIRD OF A MILLION POUNDS A YEAR!!!!!

What on earth for!!!!

[Macca]

Shop rents and rates should be forcibly capped by the Government and the Councils at least for a 5 year period to at least attempt to bring trading back into the high street....

The head of my local council is paid more than ONE THIRD OF A MILLION POUNDS A YEAR!!!!!

What on earth for!!!!

And if he is anything like the 'Chief Executive' here then he will be paying consultants a couple of million a year to tell him how to do his job.

'Chief Executive' - my arse - it used to be the Town Clerk and he got paid a middle manager's salary because all he had to do was see that the streetlights worked and the bins got empty. Nowdays of course there are dozens of ludicrously expensive social engineering projects to oversee, all paid for by the dwindling band of people who actually work for a living and pay their full council tax.

Like me :(

Not only that but we now have a Police investigation into corruption as it turns out that they were rejecting cheap tenders from local firms and instead giving the work to companies from out of the area who were tendering at three to five times the price and handing out brown paper envelopes full of cash to secure the contracts.

You wonder where all your tax money goes - into their arse pockets. Then the Government asks for 2% cuts across two years - first to go - OAP services, nurseries, playgrounds - rotten to the core.

[Alan Sircom]

There was a fascinating (and now sadly lost in the BBC aether) interview on You and Yours with the ex-proprietor of what used IMO to be one of the best photographic shops in London - Kingsley Photographic in Tottenham Court Road. He'd been interviewed a couple of months prior to the store closing down by the same team as a model of a store managing to survive against the odds.

What took the store down after more than 40 years was down to the landlord (asking for a significant rent increase to cover the lost of revenue from other stores) the local council (asking for increases in business rates to cover the lost revenue from freezing the domestic council tax), the manufacturers (supplying the individual store at a higher trade price and less frequently than the online box shifters) and the end users (who used the store as a free demonstration service for online retailers).

The end result is one of the few places you could actually get real advice on making the right purchase has gone. This applies to almost everything apart from chain coffee shops, hairdressers, nail bars and shoe shops.

[Neil McCauley]

There was a fascinating (and now sadly lost in the BBC aether) interview on You and Yours with the ex-proprietor of what used IMO to be one of the best photographic shops in London - Kingsley Photographic in Tottenham Court Road. He'd been interviewed a couple of months prior to the store closing down by the same team as a model of a store managing to survive against the odds.

What took the store down after more than 40 years was down to the landlord (asking for a significant rent increase to cover the lost of revenue from other stores) the local council (asking for increases in business rates to cover the lost revenue from freezing the domestic council tax), the manufacturers (supplying the individual store at a higher trade price and less frequently than the online box shifters) and the end users (who used the store as a free demonstration service for online retailers).

The end result is one of the few places you could actually get real advice on making the right purchase has gone. This applies to almost everything apart from chain coffee shops, hairdressers, nail bars and shoe shops.

I listened to it when it was broadcast. I really, really felt for the proprietor. He stated that his rent had risen from £30k+ to £90k+. He opined that only coffee shops and related could afford that new rent in that specific location. Such a pity.

[griffo104]

There's a shopping centre in my home town (Southend) and it was recently turned from an open air grey concrete eyesore to fully covered, with marble floors and automatic doors. Trouble was, the consortium that bought the site decided they didn't want most of the old shops there so they got rid of them (like the excellent comic store and one of the most popular pubs in town) and pushed the rent prices up for everyone else. This means over half of the stores lie empty and apart from a couple of cafes, the others are big chains (Boots, Wilkinsons, Next). With the recessession, they aren't going to fill the empty shops at all.

Then again, Southend high street doesn't fare much better.

I bought all my Preacher's from that comic book store and the Cork and Cheese was the best ale drinking pub in town, now we have to go to the Slug and Lettuce for a pint after the cinema - just wrong :cool: