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9 Jul 2025

A recent BBC Breakfast segment has sparked backlash from the cycling community over its portrayal of e-bikes, with critics accusing the broadcaster of conflating legal e-bikes with illegal,...

8 Jul 2025

More than 30 locations across Scotland have seen a major rise in the number of people cycling, according to newly released data.

7 Jul 2025

Sixteen illegally upgraded e-bikes capable of speeds up to 40mph have been seized and disposed of in a joint enforcement operation in Birmingham city centre.

7 Jul 2025

Bristol-based Cytech training provider and ACT member Life Cycle has launched its award-winning Bikes Beyond Bars programme at HMP Bullingdon, expanding a project that has already impacted lives...

4 Jul 2025

New data from Strava reveals a major surge in cycling across the UK, with Gen Z and Millennials leading the charge.

3 Jul 2025

Shimano has launched an urgent investigation into what it describes as a “critical” shortage of skilled bike mechanics across Europe, warning that the situation threatens to...

2 Jul 2025

MPs have called on Amazon and eBay to tighten controls after e-bikes and chargers flagged as serious fire risks were found for sale on their platforms.

25 Jun 2025

The E-Bike Positive campaign has seen major success in the first half of 2025, with its message reaching nearly 8 million people across the UK through high-profile media coverage and growing...

20 Jun 2025

The House of Commons Business and Trade Committee has asked the ACT, and its parent company Bira, to help them reach out to small business retailers across the country, for their quick input on...

20 Jun 2025

Activate Cycle Academy has reopened its Cytech training facility in Darlington, offering a full range of courses from Home Mechanic up to Cytech Technical Three.
 

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New data reveals the most and least expensive retail rental areas in the UK

Posted on in Business News , Cycles News

New data from insolvency specialists Real Business Rescue, which analysed current commercial retail listings to find the most and least expensive areas in the UK for business owners to open stores, has found that London, unsurprisingly, tops the UK’s most expensive area for retail rents. The capital was the most expensive with the average rents hitting £49.64.

Oxford Street Xmas

However, there is a big disparity in rents across London ranging from £86.18 in Kensington and Chelsea to £23.16 in Barking and Dagenham.

Across the UK, Oxford was the second most expensive area, with average rents of £49.51.
Although recent reports have said that Oxford is among some of the UK’s worst for empty retail units since the pandemic, retail rent could still be at a premium due to council investment in the area, a budding population of younger professionals thanks to planned new housing developments, and tourism generating £780m of income a year for local businesses.

The third highest average price per square foot per year is another tourist haven, York, at £47.75.
In terms of the most affordable retail rental price, Blackpool is the cheapest at an average of £12.45 per square foot per year.

Despite the low rents, Blackpool saw a record boom in visitors in 2021 following the pandemic with more than 12 million people visiting the town centre compared to about 9 million in 2019.

Shaun Barton, national online business operations director at Real Business Rescue said: “Rental prices are just one of the many rising costs affecting businesses across the nation as they battle through one of the toughest periods, they’ve ever faced due to the ‘cost of doing business crisis’ and rising inflation.

“Not only do these prices lead to vacant retail spaces, which can have damaging effects on high streets up and down the country, but it’s another pressure point for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) everywhere.”

Barton said the lifting of the moratorium on landlord debt collection has “increased significantly” the pressure on retailers.

“With the fallout from the pandemic, and now a ‘cost of doing business crisis’, it is clear that a significant number of retailers across the country are facing a battle to remain financially solvent and viable,” he said.

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