I spoke at the City Council's Economy Scrutiny Committee meeting this evening, giving an update on City Centre 'performance'. My report can be found in the Committee papers at http://bit.ly/gdizAj Here's what I said to Councillors...

I will keep my introductory remarks relatively brief – to allow for questions from Members.


The broad message from my report is that, although the current economic climate remains challenging, current analysis of key performance indicators in Exeter and informal feedback from City Centre retailers is relatively encouraging.

I have consistently argued that Exeter is better prepared to deal with the challenging economic climate than many places and that this is a direct result of the significant levels of City Centre investment and effective partnership working delivered over recent years.

Let me stress, however, that there are no grounds for complacency, with the economic picture often confusing, contradictory and fast changing. For example – although the picture (both locally and nationally) in January was fairly encouraging, the British Retail Consortium & KPMG February 2011 sales monitor showed UK retail sales values down 0.4% on a like-for-like basis from February 2010. Securing continued investment and maintaining the process of city centre change and renewal – a process that would be underpinned through the securing of an Exeter Business Improvement District – will be vital if we are to maintain the current broadly successful performance of city centre businesses.

Key data in the report before you provides a snapshot indicator of recent City Centre performance.

In quickly summarizing the data presented in my report I would argue that City Centre performance was relatively buoyant in the early pre-Christmas trading period (October and November), that it slowed markedly in December and that there was encouraging recovery and growth in the post Christmas sales period.

The data included in my report is self-explanatory and I don’t propose to run through it section by section. I do, however, plan to just quickly touch on the vacancy rate for shop premises.

I should start by indicating that I would vigorously defend the retail unit vacancy figures that are published through my office every two months. They reflect the position as seen by our shoppers and businesses in a way that I simply don’t believe that the figures produced by the Local Data Company do – I have directly challenged the LDC on their figures (on a number of occasions, along with others) and I have a feeling that I will probably challenge figures produced by them in the future.

The latest full retail units vacancy survey was undertaken in January 2011 and shows the lowest number of vacant retail units in the City Centre since August 2008. It should be noted that 5 of the 16 areas surveyed had no vacancies and 12 of the 16 areas surveyed showed vacancy rates either remaining static or reducing since October 2010. In January 2011 there were a total of 38 vacant retail units in the City Centre – out of a total of 622 units (6.11% vacancy rate). It is worth noting that the current national average vacancy rate is running at approximately 14%. A number of City Centre retailers currently trading can be identified as ‘at risk’ of closure, but it is not anticipated that the risk of significant post Christmas store closures is as high as in 2009 and 2010.

In Fore Street the majority of vacancies are within the two arcades. I was particularly disappointed to see the loss of Pasta Porto pre-Christmas, which represented a setback to progress on broadening-out the appeal of the Fore Street ‘evening economy’ offer.

The number of vacant units within the High Street is shown at 3 within the latest survey (although with the recent loss of Fopp and British Bookshops and Stationers this has now increased to 5). Even with the increase in vacancies since the January survey, there has still been a significant drop from the corresponding survey figure from the beginning of 2010, when the number of vacant units stood at 10.

There is currently only 1 vacant unit in Guildhall Shopping Centre, last achieved in November 2009. Interest is being expressed by a number of potential tenants in the former Sands (previously Coffee Plus) unit.

The retail unit vacancy rate remains stubbornly high in Sidwell Street, with 8 units currently vacant. It is anticipated that the arrival of the John Lewis at Home store in the autumn of this year will have a beneficial impact on the trading position in this part of the City Centre.

Happy to now take questions…