We know that empty vacant units create negative perceptions of a town centre, and that’s why we’ve been tracking the number of ground floor vacant units for just over a year now. We want to know the backstory behind every shop that’s vacant so we can better understand what the challenges are and help identify new tenants to create a diverse offer and experience in the town centre.
New businesses are great for the local economy – they provide jobs and get people spending money, helping to contribute to a thriving town centre and high street. The imminent arrival of family favourite Wacky Kingdom and Curzon cinema to the town centre is testament that Kingston is a place businesses want to be.
The Current State Of Play
If you go around the town and count up all the ground floor vacant units (as we do on a regular basis) you’ll find we have 47. Initially, that doesn’t sound good and certainly doesn’t portray an image of a thriving town centre. But by digging deeper we know that 16 of those shops are actually part of a development, such as the one on Fife Road, or have been let and are waiting for the tenant to move in. Another 14 are under offer, so that leaves 17 ground floor shops that are actually vacant, out of 511 ground floor shops in total.
Not every town centre does this deep dive into vacant units but we know that the vacancy rate for the UK was 11.8% and 9.2% in London as of April 2022 compared to 8.8% in Kingston (the data doesn’t drastically change quarter on quarter), so Kingston is actually doing quite well in terms of vacancy in the town centre. Some level of vacancy on the high street is actually a good thing as it creates opportunities for new businesses to open.
The Challenges We Are Facing
One of the challenges we face as a town centre is creating a real mix of businesses. We know residents and visitors want to see more independents, start-ups, pop-ups, local artists and to give community groups a home in the town centre. But our work so far has highlighted that high rents and business rates and the reluctance of some landlords to let on a shorter-term basis or to a lesser known name means it’s not always easy to create a diverse mix of businesses/experiences.
We’d love to hear from you about who you’d like as a neighbour or what do you think is missing in the town?
Your feedback will help shape how we influence land owners and agents to embrace and encourage something different and help us source new tenants that create an even richer offer in our town centre.
If you’re keen to know more about what vacant units are available or are a landlord that would like to get involved, do drop us a line (shareena.merzi@kingstonfirst.co.uk) .
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