Exclusive data released to The Ferret under freedom of information (FoI) legislation shows businesses are closing across Scotland, with rural and urban areas hit hard by rising costs and the pandemic.
Travel restrictions, social distancing guidelines and stay-at-home measures have made for a very tough two years for town centres. While some businesses lost the reliable footfall of office workers, others were mandated to keep their doors shut for months at a time to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
Dumbarton has been allocated £20 million from Boris Johnston’s levelling up fund, but serious doubts are being expressed as to how the West Dunbartonshire’s SNP Council will use the money.
Like members of the public, businesses are also having to tighten their purse strings to deal with rising costs. Alongside incentivising customers to return to in-person shopping, they are rallying against paying rising utility bills on their premises, increased staffing costs, and a sudden rise in rent.
More than 4,500 commercial lots in town centres are currently unoccupied, according to data supplied by 19 local authorities. Glasgow City Council reported the most empty buildings — 1,701 out of 11,855 stood empty.
Shutters are up at so many shops shops in Dumbarton’s dilapidated town centre.
Vacancy rates were the highest in the town centres under the control of Fife Council, who reported 21 per cent of its retail and service floor area was empty in 2021. This eclipses the national average of 16 per cent in the same period, which was a record-high.
Aberdeen City Council reported the largest spike in vacancy rates in the last year, with 18 per cent of its units standing empty compared to 13 per cent in 2020.
Falkirk and Perth and Kinross councils also returned high figures, sitting at 15 per cent and 12 per cent respectively. While Angus council’s vacancy rate dropped 0.9 per cent in the last year, it still stands at 14 per cent overall.
Experts warned swift action is needed to repair “gap-toothed” town centres, with the “stark impact” of the pandemic “laid bare” in the figures.
The government has launched an inquiry into the future of town centres at the beginning of February, designed to “identify the current challenges for high streets, and the barriers to their success.”
The findings give an insight on the pandemic’s impact on already struggling town centres, with gyms, shops, bars and restaurants dealing with an “exodus of office workers and dearth of shopper footfall,” the Scottish Retail Consortium said.
The £20 million grant for Dumbarton High Street will based on past performance be money down the drain.
Well not quite money down the drain. Someone will get the money and the issue is really that the town will get nothing to show for it. That’s sadly the history of our Council and already something like £50k to £60k is being spent on external private consultants to canvass people about what they want from their High Street.
Stopping the running water that has been pouring out of the now derelict shoe repairer shop at a rate of over a million gallons of water a year over the last three years might be a start. It’s like the third world where sewage runs down the street.
Or what of the new council buildings lying empty now these last two years. Refurbished at a cost of around £20 million they lie expensively unused as the workforce presumably all now work at home. Will they ever be brought back into use, or is the new council building just like the Ferguson Marine ferries, not fit for purpose.
Ah, West Dunbartonshire Council, delivering civic excellence. Let’s wait and see what this next £20 million will deliver for the town.