Stirling City Centre Health Check - Update
As reported previously in Stirling Eye, Stirling Council and Scottish Enterprise Forth Valley commissioned a City Centre Health Check report, including compilation of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). The KPIs and City Centre Health Check are intended to help Stirling Council and its partners to meet Government policy guidance for town centres (Scottish Planning Policy 8 Town Centres and Retailing).
SPP8 stresses the significance of monitoring the performance of town centres. It states, "a health check is the appropriate monitoring tool to measure the strengths and weaknesses of a town centre and to analyse the factors which contribute to its vitality and viability. A range of key performance indicators can be used to provide an effective insight into the performance of a centre and so offer a framework for assessing vitality and viability to assist decision makers in identifying new opportunities for improvement." 
While Stirling's City Centre Health Check report is still being finalised, and the health check covers a range of economic factors, some of the key provisional retail indicators include:
VenueScore Rankings - Venuescore assess the retail offer of each shopping venue across the UK by means of a scoring system set up to measure the presence of multiple retailers in each location and assess the quality and quantity of anchor stores, fashion operators and non-fashion multiples. Stirling city centre and its retail offer is currently ranked in 84th position overall in the UK and as 7th in Scotland by Venuescore sitting above towns such as Falkirk, Perth, Ayr and Braehead. This position is represented in the table showing Scotland's top ten VenueScore rankings.
VenueScore Rankings - Top 10 Scottish Centres
| City | VenueScore Scottish Rank |
VenueScore UK Rank (1 = best) |
VenueScore |
|---|---|---|---|
| Glasgow | 1 |
1 |
538 |
| Edinburgh | 2 |
4 |
382 |
| Aberdeen | 3 |
17 |
261 |
| Dundee | 4 |
44 |
201 |
| Livingston | 4 |
44 |
201 |
| East Kilbride | 5 |
81 |
167 |
| Inverness | 6 |
83 |
165 |
| Stirling | 7 |
84 |
164 |
| Ayre | 8 |
160 |
94 |
| Perth | 9 |
158 |
99 |
| Falkirk | 10 |
133 |
137 |
Source: VenueScore 2007
Zone A Rental Levels - When compared to benchmark cities / towns, Zone A retail rents achieved in Stirling are somewhat higher than similar sized centres across the rest of the UK (Promis, 2007). This may be a result of a number of factors including lack of retail floorspace or the configuration of units to meet retailer requirements. In comparison with the benchmark centres analysed by the City Centre Health Check, Stirling outperforms both Perth and Falkirk by breaking through the £100 per sq ft barrier.
Retail Yields - Retail yields relate to the ratio of rental income to capital value (return on investment) and are expressed in terms of the open market rents of a property as a percentage of the capital value. Yields are a good indicator of demand for retail property in a location. Generally, low yields indicate that a location is attractive to a developer. Yields are a good measure of demand for a centre as it provides an indication of investors' confidence in the long-term profitability of investment. Trends over time can indicate in which direction the markets are moving.
Stirling's retail yields are high in comparison to city centres such as Edinburgh and Chester, but are similar to yields for surrounding areas, including Falkirk and Perth.
Retail Yields: Benchmark Cities
| 2007 Retail Yields | |
|---|---|
| Edinburgh | 4.75% |
| Chester | 4.25% |
| Stirling | 5.5% |
| Falkirk | 5.5% |
| Perth | 5.25% |
Source: Promis PMA Town Reports
Retail Vacancy Rate - The retail vacancies table outlines how the vacancy rate in Stirling compares to other towns and cities. It demonstrates that Stirling is performing better than any of the other benchmark centres in terms of retail vacancies. It has the lowest amount of vacant retail floorspace, coming in at only 5.4% of the total retail floorspace in the city centre, and also the lowest number of vacant retail units.
Retail Vacancies: Benchmark Shopping Centres, 2007
| Floorspace | (%) | Outlets | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stirling | 40,400 | 5.4 | 27 |
| Chester | 92,700 | 5.9 | 57 |
| Edinburgh (Princes St) | 141,900 | 8.8 | 72 |
| Falkirk | 90,900 | 9.8 | 57 |
| Perth | 95,300 | 9.8 | 46 |
| Ballymena | 156,700 | 15.8 | 89 |
Source: Goad Statistics
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