South Lakeland towns buck empty shops trend (From The Westmorland Gazette)
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South Lakeland towns buck empty shops trend
10:30am Tuesday 7th February 2012 in Business
FIGURES released this week show that South Lakeland is bucking the trend when it comes to empty high street shops.
Nationally 14.5 per cent of shops on high streets are empty – but towns across South Lakeland are keeping well below this level, according to figures from South Lakeland District Council.
The district’s biggest high street is in Kendal where 410 shops were surveyed on January 12. There are currently 48 empty which gives Kendal a vacancy rate of 11.7 per cent – six months ago there were 53 empty shops.
Ambleside managed a significant drop in the number of empty shops from 12 to eight (4.8 per cent). Other towns monitored include Ulverston (seven per cent), Bowness (6.7 per cent) and Windermere (4.2 per cent).
Comments(8)
magical trevor
says...
12:28pm Tue 7 Feb 12
Lakeuk
says...
1:06pm Tue 7 Feb 12
I would suspect that alot of these landlords are paying the charities discounted business rates for them as it saves the landlords money longterm
bantambelle
says...
3:30pm Tue 7 Feb 12
Firstly, the new shop in Highgate is NOT a charity shop. It sells ex-display furniture or last season stock. It is a local man running it and he needs our support rather than being labelled as yet another charity shop.
Secondly, business rates are collected by SLDC but on behalf of central government. If only we could keep the rates for the area as then there would be lots of money to plough back into the local economy.
Also, charities get an 80% discount on rates, councils have the right to waive the remaining 20% but in SL the charities shops have to pay it.
Lakeuk
says...
8:29pm Tue 7 Feb 12
Lakeuk
says...
8:32pm Tue 7 Feb 12
http://www.bbc.co.uk
/podcasts/series/5li
nvestigates
Moonbase
says...
6:58am Wed 8 Feb 12
Ladyxxmacbeth
says...
11:45am Thu 9 Feb 12
Adam_Kendal says...
5:12pm Mon 6 Feb 12
Look at Yeomans camping shop on Highgate - anther charity shop has gone in there! Am I correct in assuming this is a deliberate choice of SLDC to make themselves look better in a steadily deteriorating town?
SLDC – take off your blinkers and look at the bigger picture!