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The coronavirus pandemic has seen some towns and cities in the North-west lose over half a year’s worth of high street retail sales, according to a new assessment of its impact by the Centre for Cities.
The work, part of the Cities Outlook 2022 report published annually by the think-tank, found that Manchester city centre was the worst affected by the pandemic, while smaller towns and cities in the region, including Burnley, Warrington and Blackburn, among the least affected nationwide of the 62 towns and cities assessed in the report of the impact of restrictions on retail.
Nationally, Covid-19 has cost businesses in city and large town centres more than a third (35%) of their potential takings since March 2020, with central London, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Cardiff worst affected. Central Manchester saw a decline in retail sales equivalent to 41 lost weeks of trading during 2021, and the think-tank attributes the loss of custom from office workers as a key factor in declining sales in major urban centres.
Larger cities have also borne the brunt of store closures in the region – Manchester and Liverpool both saw vacancy rates in their city centres increase by 2.4% in 2021, whereas they in fact fell in Blackpool by 1.5%. This suggests that the Government’s Covid-19 support successfully stalled the decline of many struggling high streets but was less effective in economically stronger places.
While government support has sheltered weaker places, it may have simply stored up pain for the future. The Centre for Cities report warns that many less prosperous places in the North West face a wave of new business closures this year and called on the government to ensure policies proposed in the Levelling Up White Paper, currently being prepared, should focus on dealing with struggling places’ fundamental economic problems to address high street decline. This means investing in skills and ways to strengthen the wider local economy to increase money in shoppers’ pockets, rather than on ‘cosmetic’ quick fixes such as hanging baskets and painting shop fronts.
Andrew Carter, Chief Executive of Centre for Cities, said:
“While the pandemic has been a tough time for all high streets it has levelled down more prosperous cities and towns in the North West. Despite this, the strength of their wider local economies means they are well placed to recover quickly from the past two years.
“The bigger concern is for economically weaker places – primarily in the North and Midlands – where Covid-19 has actually paused their long-term decline. To help them avoid a wave of high street closures this year the Government must set out how it plans to increase peoples’ skills and pay to give them the income needed to sustain a thriving high street. Many of these places are in the so-called Red Wall so there is a political imperative for the Government to act fast, as well as an economic one.”