Marlborough comes tenth in the UK in the Harper Dennis Hobbs 2019 Vitality Index which determines the retail health of a shopping area. Despite falling one place since 2017 (to the West End of London) Marlborough is the highest performing shopping area in the South West.
Bath City Centre, comes in at number thirteen, having fallen three places since 2017. Cribbs Causeway appears eight places lower than Marlborough at number eighteen.
Cambridge gained first place in 2017 and remains in top position in 2019. Seven other retail centres in the top ten are located in London with nearby Bluewater in Dartford making the eighth.
The Vitality Index is based on the proportion of upmarket and discount stores, vacancy rates and the number of less aspirational tenants such as pawnbrokers, money lenders and bookmakers. The other factor taken into consideration is the demands of the local customers given their demographic make-up.
Jonathan De Mello is Head of Retail Consultancy at Harper Dennis Hobbs: “The Vitality Ranking is a unique approach to assessing retail centres. By scoring centres based upon a number of aspects that both retailers and shoppers think of when they consider a quality retail environment, HDH provide a different perspective to rankings based solely on size or total sales.”
“Market towns that dominate a small but affluent, and relatively rural catchment area, continue to score well – in many cases they are proving to have a ‘healthier’ high street than some large cities.”
“Marlborough, in Wiltshire, has fallen in rank since 2017 but remains in the top 10, while two notable examples in the top 50, Berkhamsted and Marlow, have climbed in the ranking due to a fall in vacancy rates and growth in quality retail in those towns.”
With more new shops poised to open in the High Street Marlborough is well placed to maintain or to improve its position even further.