Shop owners say this is why there's 'so many' empty shops in Chichester

Shop owners say this is why there's 'so many' empty shops in Chichester.

Transcript

00:00 My name is Kelly and I run Cherry Vintage and I sell quirky and vintage inspired clothing and accessories.

00:07 Shops, even bigger chains, don't seem to last very long.

00:10 Sort of a year is standard, which is such a shame because it takes so much time, money and energy to get a shop up and running.

00:22 And to run for a year and close is just really sad.

00:26 And then it'll be empty. Some of them are empty for years.

00:29 And this is why people don't want to come to Chichester, because there's too many empty shops.

00:33 I have moved here and the rent is really reasonable. I have got a really nice landlord.

00:36 But I think the majority of landlords want too much money.

00:40 And they were willing to have their shop empty for months and years to get that money.

00:47 And it's just a detriment to the city because people don't want to come here with empty shops.

00:53 Some of them want £5,000 plus a month and it's really hard for even a chain to move into something like that

01:01 because the rates will be half as much again.

01:04 Electricity will be in the thousands, to be honest.

01:07 Mine's £300 a month here. It's ridiculous.

01:10 The price they charge businesses is way higher and it just makes it really hard.

01:17 I would like the rents to be more reasonable.

01:23 They could only charge so much. It would be quite nice to get people in.

01:28 And the rates, even though they're reduced at the moment, I don't know what the money's being spent on.

01:35 And the parking charges just seem to be going up.

01:38 And we need people to come into the city, not to put people off.

01:42 Lots of places do the first two hours for free and that would entice so many people.

01:47 But what they've done is they've put the prices up and extended the amount of time they charge you for.

01:51 So it's now at 8 o'clock.

01:53 So that puts people off coming for meals and stuff because they'll have to pay to park their car.