Survey Reveals a Thriving City

26 September 2007

A great place to shop and do business and punching well above its weight. These are the conclusions being drawn from a study into how Chester is performing as a retail centre.

Chester City Council commissioned the Chester Retail Study to help develop planning policy up to 2016 and to better understand retail patterns and how the sector can be strengthened.

Chester, with a population of 118,000, is the third most important shopping centre in the North West behind the metropolitan cities of Manchester and Liverpool. It’s a city where investors expect good performance and rental growth, with a busy and popular centre which shoppers find accessible from most areas by public transport.

Other key findings of the study reveal the city centre has a:-

• pleasant, clean and safe atmosphere, with well maintained historic buildings
• range and choice of quality shops
• healthy demand from retailers to take up space
• high prime shop rental value
• shop vacancy rate well below the national average
• significant element of tourist trade

Although well supplied with car parks there is a perception of parking problems and congestion at peak times. The study also found that people would like more modern shops and stores, which the council is confident the new Northgate scheme will deliver over the next few years

City council executive member for development, Councillor Mike Jones, said: “This is a positive step for Chester, however, to achieve our vision of Chester being a must see European destination we need to be in the top five for the UK so we have a great deal to do. Working closely with the business community I am sure we will make significant improvement to Chester in the future.”

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