Business rental rates dropping, says letting agent

Debenhams was just one of the large stores to shut in the Norfolk town

A commercial letting agent said rents for many High Street shops had almost halved since their peak before the pandemic.

John Weston, from Brown and Co in King's Lynn, Norfolk, said the company was finding more local businesses were moving back as a result.

"The rental levels have come down significantly from the peak," he said.

As a result he said many new tenants on the town's High Street were "local traders and businesses which haven't been able to afford [to be there] in previous years before the latest crash".

Mr Weston, an associate partner the firm, said more affordable rates had "changed the texture of the High Street".

"But business rates are still a very significant burden and it's not uncommon for a tenant to pay more in rates than he does in rent," he said.

Mr Weston said he supported the call by the chairwoman of the John Lewis Partnership, Dame Sharon White, for a Royal Commission to look into the state of town centres and the issues they face.

John Weston is an associate partner with commercial property letting agents Brown and Co in King's Lynn

Their comments come as the last Wilko stores close this week, including those in King's Lynn and Norwich.

Both are said to have traded successfully, with their closure caused by the failure of the company nationally. Three other Wilko stores in Norfolk - at Thetford, Dereham and Gorleston - have already shut their doors with dozens of jobs lost.

Mr Weston said the back story of Debenham's and Wilko needed to be scrutinised because of the impact of such failures on towns across the country.

"I think something needs to be done, otherwise the High Street as we know it is no longer going to function, and I don't think anyone wants to see as radical a change as that," he said.