Covid-19 stripped York traders of 22 weeks of sales, says Centre for Cities

The impact of the pandemic on the high street has been revealed in the latest Centre for Cities report which showed that Covid-19 has cost York businesses 22 weeks of potential takings.

This compares with other Yorkshire cities, such as Leeds which suffered from 39 weeks of lost sales. Huddersfield was the least badly hit with 12 weeks lost.

Cities Outlook 2022, the Centre for Cities' annual health check of the UK’s economy, also revealed that, nationally, York had the fourth smallest share of vacant store units after June 2021. 

The newly-released report examines the ongoing impact of Covid-19 on high streets across 52 city and town centres studied, and what this means for places as they recover and grow from the pandemic.

Across the city and town centres studied, 2,426 commercial units have become vacant during the pandemic, against 1,374 between 2018 and 2020.

York had the fourth smallest share of vacant store units after June 2021 with only 11.4 per cent vacancy rate.

This compared to cities such as Sunderland (28 per cent); Stoke (29.1per cent) and Newport (33per cent), which are experiencing a sharp decline in their high streets.

Councillor Andrew Waller, executive member for economy and strategic planning at City of York Council, said: “This positive data and York’s overall recovery success is a testament to the proactive and strong partnership work with businesses and key partners such as the BID, Traders Associations, and Federation of Small Businesses, Indie York and Retail Forum across the city throughout the pandemic.

“There are many challenges yet ahead for our local economy and it’s clear that as a region there is a need for the Government to deliver on their levelling-up promises.

“Locally, we will continue to do all that’s possible to support our businesses and ensure the city continues a strong and sustainable recovery and work with organisations to bring back into use pockets of empty premises such as on Coney Street.”

Andrew Lowson, executive director of York BID

Andrew Lowson, executive director of York BID, said: "National reports can be very useful for understanding over-arching themes, but you often have to dig a bit deeper at the local level to understand the full picture. 

"York, like all cities, has lost weeks of ‘normal trade’, however many of our businesses adapted their trading models quickly, for example marketing to domestic instead of foreign tourists; or increasing their digital offers and sales to compensate for the reduced physical footfall. 

"I have found businesses in York to be fleet of foot and many reported strong trading towards the end of 2021, which has put them in a quietly optimistic place as we start 2022. 

"Certainty and confidence is crucial to business planning and consumer confidence. Let us all hope the easing of restrictions we are now seeing is the end of what has been a roller-coaster journey for businesses."

David Skaith, owner of Winston's of York, and head of York Retail Forum, said places like Leeds have more city-centre office workers who worked from home, meaning fewer people in the city.

David Skaith, of Winston's of York Picture: milnerCreative

"York is much more dependent on hospitality, leisure and tourism but we were still closed from January to April/ May, meaning we lost the first four months of trade at least of 2021."

He said when York was open, footfall was strong with visitors coming for day and weekend trips.

"York has always had a lower-than-national average vacancy shop rate and the vast majority of empty units are ones that have been vacated by national chains so this is not just a York issue.

"What the pandemic did was speed up any issues that we already saw - shops and restaurants that were already struggling dropped off quicker. 

"But York, having a strong independent scene - not just shops but bars, hotels and leisure - meant that they could adapt quicker and people wanted to support them more than the big chains. 

"This can be seen in market towns, the one area of the pandemic that performed well because people were working at home so tended to visit their local businesses rather than travel to bigger shops away from home."

David said the pandemic had highlighted that 'local independent businesses are essential to a strong local economy and engaging with local residents is vital for a city centre to work all year round'.

"Away from York, I do fear greatly for some towns and cities around Yorkshire that don’t have the same tourist pull. The decline in trade in these places will have long-term impacts and many businesses will have got through the Christmas but will probably now be looking to close. 

"Quarter one of 2022 is going to be very tough; we are already seeing that, without any more government support. The sooner places can get back to some kind of normal the better. 

"The issue is, that new normal might not be as strong as it used to be and with ever-increasing costs of living, people's disposable income will be less."

Echoing Cllr Waller, he said: "Indie York, the Retail Forum and York BID have been great and we are lucky to have these organisations in the city, especially Indie York that now has over 230 active members."