The study by money-saving and online fundraising website, Savoo, follows hot on the heels of news that Swansea’s Quadrant shopping centre celebrated it’s strongest December trading since the pandemic.
The study looked into the UK’s high streets funding, store openings and closures and high street spending habits in 28 major UK cities to determine which UK cities have the most optimistic future for their high streets.
Plymouth has the strongest high street in the UK post-lockdown
By looking into official reports around the UK high streets, including the opening and closings of stores and the High Street Recovery Tracker, Savoo have created an index to show which UK cities have the strongest high streets.
Plymouth comes out on top with the highest overall index recovery score (165) of all the cities analysed – which takes into account the footfall in each city centre in comparison to pre-lockdown – along with the highest scores for weekday, weekend and night time footfall. Blackpool comes 2nd with the highest spend score (195) of the cities analysed.
Swansea ranked in the top 5 cities with an overall recovery index of 132 and the second lowest percentage share of High Street services vacant.
These are the top five UK cities with the strongest high streets in 2023:
| City | No of openings in 2022 in the region | No of closures in 2022 in the region | Share of High Street services vacant (%) | Spend Index Score | Overall Recovery Index Score | Weekday index score | Weekend index score | Night time index score | Total no. of retail jobs |
| Plymouth | 747 | 1,306 | 19% | 127 | 165 | 176 | 186 | 133 | 139 |
| Blackpool | 1,025 | 1,931 | 25% | 195 | 160 | 122 | 161 | 132 | 424 |
| Southend-on-Sea | 810 | 1,320 | 25% | 129 | 143 | 127 | 154 | 117 | 654 |
| Sunderland | 315 | 670 | 28% | 109 | 126 | 130 | 163 | 113 | 583 |
| Swansea | 377 | 630 | 23% | 131 | 132 | 121 | 138 | 101 | 199 |
Retail interiors expert, Verity Gray, says she sees the UK high streets changing in the next five years: “I think it is going to be ‘make or break’ time for High Streets. I believe many will thrive if handled and managed well by the local authorities and if they are well supported by the local communities.
“Thriving high streets will see the return of markets and community events. I think we will see a more diverse mix of businesses, such as ‘boutique’ cinemas, co-working offices and small businesses that offer workshops and classes as the importance of sustainability grows in consumers.
“Less affluent locations will suffer due to the Cost-of-Living Crisis and the need to find the best value for money. Consumers will be cutting back and not able to support their local cafes, restaurants, and retailers. We will see more empty shops, charity shops, but perhaps more community hubs/support centres and food banks.”
And in the long term? Gray tells us we can expect “affluent communities to see their high streets flourish. They will be nurtured and honed over the coming years, community and connection will run deeply in the High Street and it will be almost like a return to the High Street that our grandparents would have known. It will be a place to spend leisure time as well as gathering supplies. With more people working from home, more time will be spent locally.
“However, I think we will see the opposite in more deprived areas where the high street will dissolve and disappear. In towns and communities where ‘value for money’ is the main factor, consumers will look more to online shopping for greater cost comparison and ease.”
Predictions suggest a reduction of over 11,000 chain stores in the UK by 2030
Using available data on chain store openings and closings across the UK in the last five years, Savoo’s study predicts that by 2030 Greater London will have a record number of chain stores closing (2399), an increase of 542 from 2022.
The data shows that overall in the UK in 2030 we can expect to see 13,228 chain store closures compared to just 898 chain stores opening on our UK high streets, meaning an overall reduction of around 11,371 chain stores.
| 2022 | 2030 | 2022 | 2030 | |
| Region | Number of closures | Number of closures | Number of openings | Number of openings |
| South East | 1,592 | 1,826 | 1,184 | 124 |
| Greater London | 1,857 | 2,399 | 1,208 | -143 |
| South West | 1,097 | 1,239 | 779 | 83 |
| East of England | 1,003 | 1,077 | 624 | -145 |
| East Midlands | 702 | 826 | 493 | 106 |
| West Midlands | 1,024 | 1,262 | 596 | -191 |
| Wales | 479 | 506 | 327 | 63 |
| North West | 1,444 | 1,478 | 1,056 | 329 |
| Yorkshire and the Humber | 973 | 1,055 | 618 | 46 |
| North East | 471 | 481 | 349 | 148 |
Ed Fleming, Managing Director at Savoo adds: “The way that people shop has changed considerably in the past 10 years. With the rise in online shopping becoming more convenient for many, we have seen huge high-street names buckle. With the Cost of Living crisis, people are guided by the pursuit of value and necessity, with many looking online for as many savings as possible.
“People’s shopping habits are forever changing and businesses need to adapt quickly to survive. It will be interesting to see which types of shops and businesses we see emerge on the UK’s high streets in coming years.”
