Ranking: The top 50 most vibrant retail locations

Beaconsfield was ranked as the most vibrant retail location in the Harper Dennis Hobbs (HDH) 2022 Vitality Rankings. It is the second consecutive year the affluent commuter town has nabbed the top spot.

The annual index analysed several factors including vacancy rates, residents’ movement, the suitability to local consumers’ demands and vaccination levels to determine the vitality of 1,000 retail centres.

Second to Beaconsfield was Marlborough, up from fifth in 2021, followed by Wimbledon Village, which came fourth in the previous year.

HDH head of retail consultancy Andy Metherell said: “Small affluent towns – such as Wimbledon Village, Cobham or Marlborough – have often ranked highly as they have low vacancy rates, aspirational brands and a retail mix that is well-aligned to the local consumer, and therefore have a good retail vitality.

“They have dominated the rankings over the last couple of years as people have not been able to travel far for work or leisure and they, therefore, benefited from retaining high levels of spend.

“Conversely, larger retail destinations lost footfall and vitality for these reasons.” 

This trend, which kicked off at the start of the pandemic in March 2020, continued to influence how consumers shopped across the country throughout the last 12 months.

The most robust shopping destinations across the majority of regions in the UK were small and medium-sized towns such as Harpenden in the East of England, Market Harborough in the East Midlands, Prestatyn in Wales and Yarm in the North East.

“We expect the major shopping locations to recover throughout 2022 as people return to their previous behaviours for shopping, working and socialising,” Metherell said.

The highest-ranked city is York, which came in at 18, up 27 places on the previous year.

Owner of the Potions Cauldron store and former chair of York Retail Forum Phil Pinder attributed York’s resurgence to the strong presence of independent stores operating across the city, creating a unique experience for local and tourist shoppers alike.

“We have definitely benefited in terms of Covid driving more people wanting to shop independently.

“Because of our city walls, we haven’t had the mass development of shopping centres that are the filled with chains, and the chain stores that have come and gone have been filled by independents in many cases – my store is in a former Patisserie Valerie, the former Boots is now a Yorkshire gin experience, and the Debenhams and Topshop stores have been occupied by independent operators, too,” he said.

“York is also a very tourist-led city, which is another reason we’ve done well. Many cities such as Leeds relied on heavy footfall from city workers, but we have never been able to build high-rise offices, meaning office spend in York is 8% versus 40-50% in some other cities.”

The power of the staycation

Destinations like York benefited from customers, who would have holidayed abroad in previous years, taking trips across the UK in 2021 instead.

While the top 25 is comprised of largely the same mix of destinations as last year, those ranked 26 to 50 on the index have seen a more substantial shake-up. 

Retail destinations that performed well in last year’s ranking due to their strong showing of essential retail offerings have fallen out of the top 50 and been replaced by locations that have benefited from a rise in domestic tourism.

Notable examples include Cambridge, which rose 84 places to number 36, and Bowness-on-Windermere in the Lake District, which shot up 122 places to 47.

This trend continued beyond the top 50 as coastal towns, such as Falmouth, Bude and St Ives, and other tourist destinations such as Keswick and Ambleside recorded increased retail activity.

City centre resurgence 

Cities were particularly hard hit by Covid-19 in 2020 as work-from-home orders combined with non-essential retail closures and anxiety about the spread of the virus dramatically dampened footfall in central locations.

Although there are very few cities in the top 50, several did deliver a substantial rise in the rankings compared with last year.

In England, Newcastle saw the largest climb up the rankings of major UK cities, from 363 in 2021 to 157 in 2022.

Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds also saw rises of more than 130 places between 2021 and 2022, while Nottingham moved up from 280 to 209. 

In Scotland, Glasgow’s main shopping district climbed 153 places from 365 to 212. In Wales, Cardiff re-entered the top 200, up from 397 in 2021.

All these retail centres were in the top 100 in 2019 — the last Vitality Rankings before the pandemic — indicating that they still have some way to go to make a full recovery, but they have started 2022 in a much stronger position.

Retail analyst Graham Soult said Newcastle will have been insulated from the increased vacancy rates that hit other cities due to the closures of Arcadia and Debenhams by the presence of department stores Fenwick and John Lewis in its city centre.

He added that, although vacancy rates across the Newcastle shopping district are higher than they have been in previous years, the city’s overall vacancy rate is “comparatively low” compared with other UK cities.

Soult credits this resilience to a rise in local occupants taking over stores previously occupied by national chains. He points to a former Outfit store on Northumberland Street being taken over by northeast retail business People’s Price and a former Currys being taken over by retro clothing chain The Vintage Store.

“People have discovered or rediscovered local towns in a way they may not have had time to before, which I do believe to an extent will stay as a trend”

Graham Soult, retail analyst

“This is a street that has been nearly all multiples in recent decades, but is going back to how it was from the 1970s and before with a much more independent and local focus,” said Soult.

“People have discovered or rediscovered local towns in a way they may not have had time to before, which I do believe to an extent will stay as a trend.”

Metherell echoed this view. “The larger locations that have risen in the rankings tend not to be so reliant on worker populations to create demand for the local occupiers, while also benefiting from UK consumers’ increased propensity to engage in domestic tourism. They tend to have a good supply of aspirational brands that attract consumers,” he said.

The long-term impact of Covid on how and where we shop is still being felt, but there are clearly opportunities for regional high streets, domestic tourist destinations and city centres alike to marry a local focus with convenience to drive footfall and sales.

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