Figures from the Government’s own Valuation Office web site show that rents in Malton are good value for money when compared to the similar sized towns of Pickering and Driffield – rather than being significantly higher as some people often say.
New figures for the Rating List 2010 for England & Wales on the www.voa.gov.uk show what the Valuation Office agree as the rental value for shop space in each town. These values are then used to calculate the rates bill. (Note, conventionally the government valuation is lower than the actual market rent paid by retailers, but provides an valuable independent benchmark comparison between the value of shops in similar locations in different towns.)
Driffield in the Yorkshire Wolds has a population of 11,500, Malton and Norton combined of 12,000 and Pickering 7,000.
Figures on the web site divide retail space into three zones A, B and C – with zone A being the prime location within a shop, the front six metres, and B and C each a further six metres behind that . Zone B rental values are half that of A, and Zone C half that of B. This code is used to make the shops comparable with one another.
Figures for shops on Driffield’s main shopping street – Middle Street/Market Place– value the prime zone A retail space from £180 to £280 per metre square.
Zone A prime retail space in Pickering’s Market Place is valued at £300 per metre square.
In Market Place, Helmsley, Zone A rents range from £268 to £420 per meter square.
In Malton’s Market Place, Zone A retail space is valued at £200 per m2 and in Wheelgate it is £300 per m2.
On the basis of these independent figures it is clear that comments about high rents in Malton do not actually hold water when comparing with shop rents in these other similar towns. In fact, if anything, it shows that Malton’s rents are often significantly lower than elsewhere.