00:00Leeds and South Yorkshire show how uneven the high street story has become. Leeds City Council
00:06said in September 2026 that vacancy in the city centre's main retail area had fallen to 8.8%,
00:14its lowest level since records began in 2019. That sounds encouraging but a few miles away
00:22independent traders interviewed in South Leeds have described a much tougher picture with some
00:28saying business has steadily declined and shops have disappeared. In Barnsley the council has been
00:35preparing to use new powers aimed at bringing persistently empty premises back into use.
00:41So this is not one simple regional decline. Some centres are adapting better than others. What
00:48they all face is a shopper with far more choice. The office for national statistics says close to
00:55three in every 10 retail pounds was spent online in August 2026. We may like the idea of busy markets,
01:03independent shops and familiar town centres but convenience often wins when we actually spend.
01:10The challenge is giving people reasons to visit that cannot be delivered in a cardboard box in person
01:17again. We've been talking about the decline of the high street for years it seems to me. When we're
01:22talking about the sort of the online retailers and of course I don't have to mention who they are.
01:26Yeah they have this ability to sort of bulk buy but of course they don't have some shops it's it's
01:30done
01:30by clicks rather than bricks. There is no doubt of course that sort of vacant premises they sort of
01:34look unsightly and it becomes slightly hostile places if um to sort of people want to go in so what
01:40you've
01:40got to do is make them more attractive. Now of course that's to do with sort of spending money by
01:45the sort of local authority primarily although we have sort of groups such as business improvement
01:50districts and they sort of put money into yeah making the sort of the environment more pleasant
01:54but of course you've got to still attract people to want to go in there and if it's not so
01:58for
01:58shopping and I do think that there will always be some high street presence although it's it's
02:03continues to be in decline it's about sort of the things that we want to do to sort of meet
02:06up so
02:07it's about leisure health perhaps we sort of know that sort of gyms and the sort of like
02:12you've got to sort of have the sort of the if you like a multi-agency approach but of course
02:16it
02:16always requires money and once sort of retailers vacate those premises don't let them go into
02:21decline because of course it makes it all more difficult to bring them back to sort of to a
02:24proper usage. In England the government says it's trying to make high streets more competitive
02:29from April 2026 qualifying retail hospitality and leisure properties moved on to lower business rate
02:37multipliers while councils can use high street rental auctions to bring long empty premises back into use
02:44in September 2026 ministers announced a 210 million pound package aimed at derelict buildings struggling
02:53businesses and community ownership the test is whether that investment changes how people spend
