London leads UK high streets and Newport worst in vacancy study

A new analysis by the Centre for Cities think tank has ranked the performance of high streets across Britain, finding wide variation in vacancy rates that leave some city centres thriving while others verge on crisis. The study of 62 towns and cities concluded the average vacancy rate is 12.8%, but ranges from just 7.4% in London to almost 19% in Newport, signalling stark geographic differences in the health of local retail corridors.

The report measured the share of empty shopping units and supplemented that with an examination of catchment areas and consumer spending patterns. Authors said they analysed millions of credit and debit card transactions to map where residents shop and how much they spend in other city centres or large retail parks. That additional data, officials said, allowed a deeper view of high streets than vacancy figures alone provide.

London topped the list of best-performing high streets with a vacancy rate of 7.4%, followed by Cambridge at 8.5% and Oxford at 9%. Several unexpected cities also made the top 10, including Liverpool, Southampton, Milton Keynes and Peterborough. By contrast, Newport had the nation's highest vacancy rate at about 19%, with...