"36 years after the opening of Brent Cross, the development pipeline for new malls has ground to a halt"
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| Link to The Guardian |
"For the first time in decades, there are no major shopping centre openings planned for this year, and the trickle of refurbishments is putting growth at a level that property experts say has turned the clock back to the early 1960s.
"Ed Cooke, policy director at the British Council of Shopping Centres, says it is a watershed:
"The development pipeline has effectively come to a halt.
Ultimately it is all driven by the consumer. If the consumer is under pressure, that feeds through to retailers, and if they are struggling, the pressure moves on to property owners and developers."
[Extra paragraph from the original press release:]
"Retailer requirements have also evolved. The research re-affirms retailers’ demands for bigger, better but fewer units in larger towns and cities. However, the severe lack of new space is resulting in a significantly limited choice for retailers, forcing them to choose units in out-of-town retail parks or expand internationally in order to grow. This adds further pressure to the UK’s struggling high streets and smaller towns.
"Retailer requirements have also evolved. The research re-affirms retailers’ demands for bigger, better but fewer units in larger towns and cities. However, the severe lack of new space is resulting in a significantly limited choice for retailers, forcing them to choose units in out-of-town retail parks or expand internationally in order to grow. This adds further pressure to the UK’s struggling high streets and smaller towns.
"There is also evidence, barring notable exceptions such as Leeds and Manchester, of an emerging north-south divide, as developers scrap schemes in poorer areas to target wealthy pockets in the south-east. Cooke says:
"Property developing is a riskier business today than it was in the bull years. The financial calculations are more uncertain because of the changes in retail (such as the growth of the internet) which are fundamentally structural, rather than cyclical."
Simon Jenkins: "George Osborne's growth policy is turning British cities into Detroit UK"
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| Link to web site |
"I witnessed government growth policy at work last week, on the road north out of Manchester towards Rochdale. The scene is one of utter devastation. Not just individual shops but entire parades have gone out of business and are boarded up. Mile upon mile of factories, garages, supermarkets and warehouses lie empty and for sale. Recession has delivered the coup de grace to a quarter century of manufacturing decline. Manchester is by no means the worst hit of English cities, but its northern suburbs are Detroit UK.
"The British economy needs three things: demand, demand, demand."
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