It will be a “life or death” Christmas for many small traders this year, it has been claimed, with Northern Ireland now having almost twice the national average for vacant shops.
The warning came last night from the Northern Ireland Independent Retail Trade Association (NIIRTA) after a survey showed that 20 per cent of shops across the Province are vacant – by far the worst figures in the UK.
NIIRTA chief executive Glyn Roberts said: “It is life or death for a lot of small shops in the run-up to Christmas this year – come January, many of them may not be there.”
He said the retail sector in Northern Ireland is “the largest part of our economy in terms of private sector employment and turnover”.
“Yet in the last two years we have lost 2,000 shops and a number of medium-sized chain-stores as well,” he added.
He has both short-term and longer-term proposals to address the decline. This year he is calling on shoppers to “spend a little bit more in the smaller independent stores” such as grocers, butchers and chemists.
Mr Roberts said: “They usually give much better service than the big multiples. I would ask people to explore their local independent sector a little more this Christmas.”
In the longer-term he is calling for a “more joined-up government” approach to the problem, the central plank of which is using chain stores as town centre retail anchors, while discouraging the creation of more out-of-town shopping facilities.
NIIRTA’s major proposals from its 50-point plan, ‘Town Centre First’, centre around several themes:
l more coordination between central and local government to address the problems;
l merging the departments responsible for town centre development (environment and regional and social development ) to encourage a more unified strategy;
l discouraging the creation of out-of-town shopping centres so that major multiples help to anchor high street retail districts instead;
l encouraging town centre cultural and art events to encourage higher footfall;
l easing entry into retail as a career by supporting short term “pop-up-shops” and “retail incubator units” for the next generation of entrepreneurs;
l diversifying uses for vacant town centre shop fronts, for example, with community projects and residential apartments.
Mr Roberts said: “People are not spending at the moment as they have in times past and this is hitting retail. We need to stimulate consumer demand. It is a bigger challenge now, for example, with many people shopping online.
“It it vital we update out planning policies, which are not fit for purpose. We need to make it more difficult for big multiples to go out of town and get the right balance of multiples and small and medium traders in our town centres. Quite often supermarket retailers already have major stores right in town centres.”
Mr Roberts’ comments came after the Northern Ireland Retail Consortium (NIRC) survey found Northern Ireland shop vacancies rose to 20 per cent in October compared to a national UK weighted average of 11.3 per cent.
In a more positive light, the survey also found a 14.4 per cent increase in footfall in Northern Ireland shops from August to October 2012, compared to the same period last year. According to the survey Northern Ireland is one of only three regions of the UK to see footfall increases in the past year, the other two being the West Midlands with only 4.2 per cent and Greater London with a comparatively tiny 1.4 per cent. All other seven UK regions have actually seen declining footfall.
Mr Roberts added: “It is good to see increased footfall in our town centres but it is very clear that this is not translating into increased sales for many retailers.”
Aodhán Connolly, director of the NIRC, added: “It’s really encouraging to see footfall rising so dramatically, but the fact that one in five shops in Northern Ireland is now lying empty makes for grim reading. Shopper numbers may be on the up, but continuing economic worries mean that this isn’t translating into increased spending.
“There’s been some welcome government action to help. Speeding up the introduction of the business improvement district legislation to formalise and fund bodies specifically aimed at helping town centres is great.
“But, to avoid more job losses and more empty shops, there needs to be stronger support for investment and an understanding that over regulation and uncertainty in areas such as the planning process do not make Northern Ireland a better place to do business.”