1: Chester Retail Core Vacancy Rates (source: CWaC Annual Monitoring Report 2020)

Chart

Chester is an established regional retail shopping destination with a catchment area which includes Cheshire, the Wirral, and parts of Merseyside and North Wales. It is categorised as a Regional Centre by PMA on the basis of volume and quality of its retail offer.12 This catchment is supplemented by strong annual tourist visitor numbers. The retail offer within the city has developed over the past 20 years, in part because of changing market conditions and the development of the out of town retail offer both at Sealand Road and the wider locality such as Cheshire Oaks and Broughton.

Local Plan Policy ECON 2 states that retail development must be focused in the City Centre to support its subregional role as a shopping, leisure, and international tourism destination. The Council are clear that the steady loss of non-food retail provision from the City Centre is a major concern which if unchecked will damage the long-term health of the City Centre. The Council attributes Chester’s falling retail performance to the difficulties of delivering a major City Centre development in a historic setting combined with increased competition from other centres.13

Chart 1 above, which details the vacancy rate in Chester’s retail core, sheds additional light on the challenging environment facing Chester. The chart shows that since 2010 the vacancy rate in Chester has almost doubled, despite a marked improvement in 2017. Between 2017 and 2019 vacancy rates deteriorated by 6.6%.

It should be noted that Chart 1 relates to all provision within the retail core and is thus reflective of the changing fortunes of the City Centre generally rather than just its retail offer.

Liverpool is Chester’s main competitor, following the opening of Liverpool One in 2008. The centre provides 1.4 million sq ft of retail floorspace, anchored by Debenhams and John Lewis stores. The centre provides 1.4 million sq ft of retail floorspace, anchored by John Lewis. Liverpool is only a 45 minute journey from Chester via Merseyrail’s Wirral line.14

Another important source of competition to Chester is Intu Trafford Centre. This 1.6 million sq ft regional shopping centre lies around 40 minutes’ drive northeast of Chester. The scheme has an enviable line up of anchors with Selfridges, John Lewis and Marks & Spencer. In addition, there is also a wide range of mass market multiples and some quality retailers, which are likely to attract shoppers from a wide area, including Chester.15

To the north of Chester at Little Stanney is Cheshire Oaks Designer Outlet. This 460,000 sq ft scheme - one of the largest outlet centres in the country - has a very strong tenant line-up including a good range of upper middle/quality retailers such as All Saints, Crew, Hobbs, Barbour, Burberry, Gap Outlet, Gant and Diesel. Marks & Spencer opened a new 148,000 sq ft flagship store on a neighbouring site in 2012.16

12 Promis Retail Report, PMA (April 2021).

13Local Plan (Part One) paragraph 6.12.

14 Promis Retail Report, PMA (April 2021).

15 Ibid