While the top five stay the same, the most striking change of all will be the emergence of Liverpool as a top 10 player in the UK rankings, leaping nine places from 15th to sixth.
This is all down to Grosvenor’s£900 million Liverpool One development, due for completion next year and comprising 1.6 million sq ft (148,640 sq m) of retail space.
Liverpool is not the only city due for a big shunt up the rankings thanks to a city centre redevelopment programme. The increased focus on town centre planning means they have become the focus of developer interest. Bristol, Cardiff, Sheffield and Oxford are other major centres due to benefit from large schemes in the next few years and set for a big lift up the league table.
However, there will be losers too. With Liverpool gaining in strength, competing centres such as Chester and the Trafford Centre will be hit. And some towns where development is planned are still likely to fall down the rankings nevertheless, as the new schemes will merely dilute the existing spend – Aberdeen and Kingston are examples.
The two most striking names on the 2017 list are ones that don’t even figure today. London’s two giant developments at White City and Stratford will burst onto the scene in 15th and 29th place respectively.
And while the West End remains top of the list, Experian director of property consultancy Jonathan De Mello says it would be a fallacy to think the West End could be immune.
“White City will hit retail in central London quite hard,” he says. “It will reduce the catchments of Knightsbridge, Kensington and the West End and will cannibalise the stores that retailers have in those areas.”
Second-ranked Glasgow is another place where cannibalisation will occur, spreading the same spend across more stores and centres. The Silverburn centre in Pollok will open fully let and this will pull shoppers from the city’s affluent southern suburbs away from the city centre. Longer-term, the redevelopment of the giant Ravenscraig steelworks site will also have a major impact.
| 2017 Rank | 2007 Rank | Change In Rank (2007 - 2017) | GOAD Centre Name |
1 | 1 | 0 | London West End |
2 | 2 | 0 | Glasgow Central |
3 | 3 | 0 | Birmingham Central |
4 | 4 | 0 | Manchester Central |
5 | 5 | 0 | Nottingham Central |
6 | 15 | 9 | Liverpool Central |
7 | 6 | -1 | Leeds Central |
8 | 11 | 3 | Cardiff |
9 | 9 | 0 | Newcastle upon Tyne Central |
10 | 7 | -3 | Edinburgh - Princes Street |
11 | 8 | -3 | Bluewater |
12 | 10 | -2 | Norwich |
13 | 14 | 1 | Croydon |
14 | 12 | -2 | Kingston upon Thames |
15 | - | - | White City |
16 | 17 | 1 | Leicester |
17 | 13 | -4 | Southampton Central |
18 | 24 | 6 | Bristol - Broadmead |
19 | 16 | -3 | Reading |
20 | 23 | 3 | Milton Keynes |
21 | 20 | -1 | Aberdeen |
22 | 19 | -3 | Brighton Central |
23 | 18 | -5 | MetroCentre |
24 | 22 | -2 | Lakeside |
25 | 21 | -4 | Bromley |
26 | 33 | 7 | Sheffield Central |
27 | 36 | 9 | Oxford |
28 | 26 | -2 | Merry Hill |
29 | 37 | 8 | Preston |
30 | 179 | 149 | Stratford |
31 | 25 | -6 | Brent Cross |
32 | 27 | -5 | Meadowhall |
33 | 32 | -1 | Hull |
34 | 47 | 13 | Portsmouth Central |
35 | 31 | -4 | Plymouth |
36 | 28 | -8 | Trafford Centre |
37 | 30 | -7 | Chester |
38 | 38 | 0 | Maidstone |
39 | 29 | -10 | Watford Central |
40 | 46 | 6 | Crawley |
41 | 34 | -7 | Bolton |
42 | 35 | -7 | Guildford |
43 | 42 | -1 | Stoke-on-Trent Ð City Centre (Hanley) |
44 | 45 | 1 | Peterborough |
45 | 44 | -1 | Derby |
46 | 41 | -5 | Ipswich |
47 | 52 | 5 | Wolverhampton |
48 | 39 | -9 | Northampton |
49 | 58 | 9 | York |
50 | 40 | -10 | Doncaster |
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