At least 48 empty shops, buildings, and units have been counted in Leeds city centre.
With the convenience of online shopping as well as the pandemic, there has been a huge change in the way people shop.
In the heart of Leeds, we have also seen the closure of shops such as Debenhams which played a huge part in the city the retail scene.
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More people are starting to venture out to the high street once again to shop but you can't help but notice there are a number of empty units in the city centre.
Leeds City Council has said the main shopping areas currently have a vacancy rate of 17 per cent which is the “national average” but plans are in place to change the existing retail space.
So took to the city centre count the vacant units. To make the survey as accurate as possible, we only included shops and other buildings that were advertised as 'to let' or 'for sale', or were visibly unused.
The survey excludes empty shops which are part of shopping centres in Leeds and in total, we counted around 48 empty buildings and units.
Below is a list of the streets and shopping centres surveyed by LeedsLive as well as the number of empty units found on each one:
Commercial Street - 3
Boar Lane - 2
Briggate - 9
Central Road - 1
The Headrow - 12
Vicar Lane - 8
Merrion Street - 2
Lady Lane - 1
Harewood Street - 1
New Briggate - 1
Duncan Street - 4
Albion Street - 1
Albion Place - 2
Kirkgate - 1
What Leeds Council had to say
A spokesperson for Leeds City Council said: “Leeds city centre’s main outdoor shopping areas currently have a 17 per cent vacancy rate. This figure is the same as the national average.
"Like any city centre and major retail destinations, Leeds sees a constant turnover of retailers, hospitality and leisure businesses so the vacancy rate does fluctuate over time.
“We are aware that for most of the larger empty units, there are plans in place to remodel or re-occupy these, for example, the recently announced plans for the Debenhams building, which start on site next year.
"There are also developments proposed which seek to change some of the existing retail space in the city centre into new hospitality led space. New retailers and services are coming to the city all the time, with more in the pipeline over the coming months.”
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