Manchester shopping gets better
MANCHESTER is officially the UK's most improved shopping destination.
In the largest survey of retail opiniorald Eve ranks the UK's leading high streets in terms of overall volume of retail floorspace, the amount of fashion shopping, the quality and quantity of top retail brands present and also how comfortable it is for the shopper in terms of parking, accessibility and personal safety.
Manchester topped the polls for both improvement over the last three years and, more importantly, optimism for future trading prospects.
There certainly seems to be a strong degree of confidence in the north west economy, the report says. Glasgow is officially the best high street for shopping in the UK, says the report.
The new Bullring development in Birmingham has pushed the city up to second place overall.
Other centres that scored top marks included Southampton for the best parking, Croydon for the best public transport and Guildford for the most attractive environment.
Historic cities such as Oxford and Bath did not fare so well, with planning constraints meaning retailers are less able to roll out their latest store concepts. In addition, parking and accessibility problems caused these cities to rank way down the list.
Taking all aspects of the research into account, future prospects for high streets over the next five years have also been assessed, with Birmingham topping the list of locations set to improve their status by the greatest margin, with Manchester, Southampton, Norwich and Liverpool close behind.
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