London high streets beat UK vacancy rates despite pressure from rising rents

Signs of health within the London economy emerged today, with a new study showing that the capital was among the British cities with the fewest empty stores on its high street.

Despite pressure from rising rents and higher business rates, many retailers on London’s high streets have bucked the wider trend of closures across Britain’s shopping destinations, with 7.3 per cent of London’s commercial units lying empty in the last 12 months.

Read more: Ranked: These are London's 10 worst high streets

Only Cambridge and York enjoyed a higher proportion of tenancy than the capital, according to a new report from Centre for Cities.

Meanwhile, Newport suffered the highest vacancy rate in the UK, with 24.3 per cent of the city’s commercial space lying empty during the 12-month period.

These are the cities with the lowest vacancy rates:

These are the cities with the highest vacancy rates:

“This research shows that it is not all doom and gloom on the high street, despite the headlines,” according to Centre for Cities chief executive Andrew Carter.

Carter added: “However, future city centres are likely to look very different to today. We must remember that a successful high street is the result, not the driver, of a successful city economy and take a more holistic approach to regenerating city centres – including allowing councils to access infrastructure funding as well as money set aside for high street regeneration.”

Such news comes despite fears for London’s high street retailers, many of which have struggled to maintain costs in the wake of higher rents and increased business rates.

Read more: Britain's major retailers to form action group as business rate woes mount

According to the research, London has also seen the second strongest growth in jobs out of any city in the last two decades, with Manchester taking the top spot.

Jobs in London’s city centre have soared to 1.77m in 2015, rising 71 per cent when compared with 1998.