BUSINESS leaders and traders have blamed high rents for the number of empty shops in Bridport.

Bridport Chamber of Trade president Mike Harvey fears high town centre rents are ‘unsustainable and crippling’.

Chartered surveyor Lewis Findlay, who negotiates rents on behalf of both tenants and landlords, claims businesses are caught in a trap that keeps rents high during times of recession.

The comments come as empty shops remained unfilled in town as Bridport prepares for the busy summer season.

East Street – which has the highest rents – is the hardest hit with Chez Cuddy, Generations, Hop in the Vine, and the estate agents all still vacant.

Mr Findlay, of Findlay and Butler in Gundry Lane, said the problem was most leases were ‘upwards only’ ones with rents only increasing. He said that for tenants to persuade landlords that rents ought to go down, they had to show evidence of what was happening with other businesses. If you are negotiating a rent review, it is based on transactions. What tends to happen in a recession is that there is no recent evidence to show that rents have fallen, especially in a small town like Bridport.

“So you are often stuck at the peak figure.

“It is like a chicken and egg situation. That’s the main difficulty.

“Rent never seems to go down in a recession because it is all down to evidence and things are just not moving.”

Mr Findlay said that the other problem was that in main streets like East Street – where there are four shops empty – the rents are too high for independent shopkeepers.

He added: “You get a national multiple coming into the town and they are not too critical about the amount of rent they are going to pay because they have 200 other branches.

“They won’t be bothered whether they are paying £24 or £25,000 a year because it all comes out in the wash.

“Whereas, to the small private business person it is that much more critical. So rents get pushed up because of the national multiples.

“Those in East Street are never going to let to a private tenant because they are too big and the rents too high for the size of the premises.”

Mr Harvey added: “What is putting real pressure on everybody is rents and business rates, which we think are still too high and need to come down. Shop rents are unsustainable and crippling.

“If there is no demand, then shops remain empty and landlords are more likely to accept a reduced rent for an empty shop, especially if they pay business rates.

“There are more empty than there have been recently.

“But I think Bridport is still a thriving place compared with anywhere else.

“It is just completely different from anywhere else.”

“We must make sure the local authority does not interfere with it, that’s the important point.”

LINDA Younghusband and Denise Revy are doing a deal – one because business is buoyant and the other because it is not.

Mrs Younghusband is taking over her second shop in the town having already expanded The Dorset Pedlar in South Street.

She is taking over the lease from Denise Revy at her Headful gift shop in Bucky Doo Square.

Mrs Revy said: “I am giving up. I have had enough, to some extent because of the economic situation.

“I believe the rent is quite high here.”

Mrs Younghusband knows first-hand how rents vary in the town.

“Even with the extension at the back of the Dorset Pedlar this is more than we pay for the whole of that, and there are no toilets or anything. So it really is location, location, location.”

ONE man who knows how high rents can impact a business is Ray Goodey at the Red Plum in South Street, who is in his seventh year of trading.

He signed a 12-year lease and had ‘upwards only’ rent reviews every three years.

He started paying around £8,700, then three years later it was nearly £10,000.

Just over a month ago he got a demand with a 20 per cent increase that, with VAT, would mean close to £14,500 a year.

He said: “Quite frankly this Christmas was dreadful.

“My wife and I have subsidised the last two quarters’ rent payments and had to borrow money to get through.”

From the end of last summer to Christmas he took around £9,000 – compared to a seasonal average of between £14,000 and £15,000.

With Mr Findlay’s help, he persuaded landlords Churchill Retirement Properties to give him a stay of execution.

“I told them they had a good tenant.

“I’ll always pay the rent as long as it is reasonable but I couldn't afford it.

“There is absolutely no way, but you cannot walk away from a leasehold shop.

“It was a ludicrous amount to request. But I have to look it in the face again next year.”