Vacant shops have been a tangible sign of recession – but now they are showing signs of recovery. The Local Data Company’s in-depth urban data, analysed by Geofutures and available via Town Centre Intelligence, suggests that the rate of vacancy growth has slowed considerably in Great Britain, with a few major centres seeing overall reductions.

It’s a great example of data made accessible and meaningful, no doubt the reason why so much of the UK’s media ran the story today. The Local Data Company have launched a report for the 2009 year end, Dawn of a Better Market, including a Geofutures retail vacancy rate contour map for Q4 2009, updating the one used by the FT looking at the first quarter of the year.

Side by side, the maps show a contraction in the area of highest vacancy rates in north east England and southern Scotland, though vacancies are still running high, with north Wales/Merseyside and the south Midlands also performing slightly better. The North Midlands and East Kent are still hotspots of high vacancies.

These results are based on over 149,000 shop premises in 700 town and city centres across Great Britain surveyed by LDC. More information about Town Centre Intelligence.

High street retail vacancies, Q1, 2009

High Street retail vacancies, Q4 2009