Still, 15.7 per cent of Scotland’s shops lying vacant

SHOP vacancy rates in Scotland remain stubbornly high, at almost one in six – according to the latest figures released by a trade association for retailers.

Says the Scottish Retail Consortium, the vacancy rate for the last three months of last year stood at 15.7 per cent – the same it had been during the previous six months.

However, it was 0.4 per cent down on the vacancy rate for the same three months in 2021.

Among other findings, shopping centre vacancies remained unchanged at 20.5 per cent, on the High Street, vacancies worsened to 14.8 per cent in Q4 (from 14.7 per cent in Q3), and retail park vacancies improved to 9.8 per cent in Q4 2022 (compared to 11 per cent in Q3).

In a league table of nations and regions in the UK, Scotland stood at eighth out of 11, with only the West Midlands (15.8 per cent), Wales (16.3 per cent) and the North-east of England (18.2 per cent) registering ‘worse’ figures.

Picture credit: Place Design Scotland

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