Sunderland has received its fair share of bad press of late. If it wasn’t bad enough being labelled the city with the lowest number of businesses in the UK, new data has revealed that there is an increase on the number of shops closing adding to the widening of the north/south divide.
Ask anyone’s outlook on the state of the high streets up and down the country and you will most likely be met with the same opinion, one of hardship and instead of a bustling town centre tumbleweed blows freely. The national analysis of over 2,000 town centres and retail parks in 2013 showed the vacancy rates were below 14 per cent for the first time in four years which is great news but unfortunately the outcome also illustrated huge regional variations as the North East was shown to have a 25 per cent vacancy, along with the North West with a 17.5 per cent.
Of course it is disappointing when one comes across findings like these but I would advise readers to take these surveys with a pinch of salt for it was only two months ago that I read an article boasting about the North East leading the way in jobs and even powering ahead of London with optimism among employers at an all time high. Likewise around the same time it was announced that more start up businesses were launching in Sunderland than ever before, a record breaker.
Come June the North East Business and Innovation Centre (BIC) will celebrate 20 years of backing businesses offering expertise and practical solutions tailored to meet the needs of our clients regardless of their size or sector, we are all subject to the challenges the economic times can throw at us but I believe that having the ability to bounce back and retain a positive outlook is key. Focus on what you know and experience at ground level not what some survey has conducted.
For it was Mark Twain who famously said: “There are three kinds of lies; lies, damn lies and statistics.”