High Streets show start of recovery
The Hounslow Chronicle reports on how signs of economic recovery can be seen by looking at the recent numbers of empty shop spaces around the borough – with 23 empty units in Twickenham compared to 35 in November. Teddington High Street has officially seen a slight increase from 7 to 8 (up to November) but more recently with the demise of 2 off-licenses along that belonged to First Quench group, Tops Tiles, Caroline Turner Shoes and now Subway, the total is now nearer 10.
Previous recessions seemed to hit shops hardest with many empty units blighting most high-streets. This recession seems to have hit offices harder with more To Let signs popping up every month. Severe cost-cutting has led to many businesses to merge different office locations or simply to downsize their office space after redundancies and take advantage of the current ‘buyers market’ in office space.
High profile office spaces in Teddington that fall into this category are Informer House (now merged elsewhere), Park House (pictured below) which will see all current residents merge with other locations later in the year and Somerset House which is in the pre-planning stage to be torn down and replaced with a smaller office and 51 dwellings.
