Gazette Business
South Lakeland towns buck empty shops trend
10:30am Tuesday 7th February 2012
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).