Number of leisure units increases by 8,000 in a year as sector expands into vacant retail spaces: The number of leisure properties in the UK has increased from 291,000 to 299,000 in the past year as the leisure sector expands into vacant retail space, according to new research. Gyms increased by 8% from 4,400 units in 2021 to 4,750 in 2022; cafes increased 2.4%, from 16,070 to 16,450; while in-store cafes have increased by 17%, from 640 to 750, as retailers install them to encourage shoppers to spend more time in store. The analysis of Valuation Office Agency data shows the number of shops and other retail units in the UK has fallen from 511,000 to 510,000 over the same period. More retailers have been forced to close as consumers reduce spending during the cost-of-living crisis. On top of this, retail properties now have a vacancy rate of 13.9%, according to the British Retail Consortium. Reduced demand from bricks and mortar retail coupled with lower rents and more competitive deals for vacant space on high streets and in shopping centres has allowed more leisure operators to lease premises they might not previously have been considered available, said commercial law firm EMW. Terence Ritchie, principal at EMW, said leisure businesses are also taking up prime high-street locations that were previously just the domain of retailers. This progression has been aided by commercial property investors starting to view leisure businesses as an attractive investment asset class in their own right, rather than as a retail ‘bolt-on’, he added. “There’s a fundamental change happening on British high streets,” Ritchie said. “More leisure turns shopping centres and high streets into their own destination, bringing friends and family together for longer dwell times. These people are more likely to spend elsewhere and revisit.”

Average wages for hospitality workers rise 53% in past ten years, highest of any UK industry: The fastest-rising wages in the UK over the past decade have been in the hospitality sector, with average weekly earnings for full-time workers rising 53% from £328 per week in 2012 to £502 per week in 2022, according to new research. The Office for National Statistics data showed sector workers have also experienced the fastest wage inflation in the past year, with average weekly earnings jumping 23% from £409 in 2021 to £502 in 2022. The average hospitality worker has experienced four times as much wage inflation as the UK’s average worker, with average wages increasing 4.9% from £696 per week in 2021 to £729 in 2022. Chartered accountants and business advisers Hazlewoods said the increase in wages over the past decade is partly due to rises in the National Minimum Wage. This figure has risen by 53% in the last ten years, from £6.19 per hour in 2012 to £9.50 in 2022. Wage inflation in the hospitality sector in the past year has also been fuelled by labour shortages, with Brexit restrictions reducing the number of workers coming to the UK from the EU. Under the UK’s new immigration system, overseas workers must apply for a skilled worker visa. However, relatively few jobs in hospitality meet the skill and salary criteria required. As a result of these shortages, employers have been forced to increase wages to attract British and Irish nationals to these positions. Rebecca Copping, associate partner at Hazlewoods, said: “Hospitality workers have seen minimum wage rises and Brexit combine to drive up their wages sharply over the past ten years. Recruiting from what is a now a finite pool of workers in a much more competitive market has meant pay levels have had to increase markedly.”