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Nigel TAYLOR Published
July 28, 2025
The UK has lost a massive 6,000 physical retail stores in the last five years with the North and the Midlands hit the hardest, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC).
The organisation cited “crippling business rates and the impact of the Covid lockdowns the key part of decisions to close stores and think twice about new openings”.
And as the cost-of-living crisis continues, the rate of closures isn’t easing, with the latest BRC figures showing UK retail vacancy rates increased to 13.9% in the second quarter of 2025. The rate was 0.1% up on the first quarter but was a tiny 0.1% improvement on a year ago.
High street vacancy rates continue to be the most striking, increasing to 13.9% in Q2, 0.1% worse than Q1, while shopping centre rates remained unchanged at 17.8%, the same level as Q1.
However, retail parks continue to show their popularity as vacancy rates in the sector actually fell 8.1% in Q2 and saw a 0.6 percentage point improvement from Q1. This continues to be the retail location with by far the lowest vacancy rate, noted the BRC.
The report said retail parks’ resilience has been bolstered “by their strong occupancy fundamentals and relatively small lot sizes”.
Geographically, Greater London, the Southeast and East of England again had the lowest vacancy rates. The highest rates were in the Northeast, followed by Wales and Scotland.
It cited London’s low vacancy rate and its improvement over the last quarter due to the opening of new flagship stores, more office workers, and tourists visiting the capital.
The body’s chief executive Helen Dickinson said: “To inject more vibrancy into high streets and town centres, and prevent further store closures, government should review the broken business rates system. Currently, there's an additional £400 million going on retailers' bills next April, which will put a brake on the vital investment that our towns and cities so desperately need.”