Why our city centre is underperforming — and what we can do about it

Good afternoon readers — and welcome to this week’s Monday briefing.

It’s the topic that always arouses the most debate in Sheffield: the state of the city centre. All cities have struggled to cope with the rise of online shopping in recent years, but Sheffield seems to have struggled more than most. A new report from the Centre for Cities found that we have the highest vacancy rate of any large city. Why do we struggle to attract businesses to our city centre, and more importantly, what can we do about it? That’s today’s big story.

As well as that we have news of a major new regeneration drive in Attercliffe, the Sheffield Grand Prix returns to the city centre, and a lovely apartment in Kelham Island.

In case you missed it

For our weekend read, Victoria rewatched Among Giants, a long forgotten 1998 film set in Sheffield by the same writer as The Full Monty. The film was a huge flop, grossing less than half a million worldwide and in the decades since has all but vanished. Is it time there was a reappraisal of Sheffield’s lost summer of love?

Last week we sent out two great newsletters to our paying members. In the first, Victoria spoke to Sheffield’s first Reform councillor John Booker about his politics and what the rise of Reform might mean for Sheffield. And in the second we introduced our new series Sheffield’s big questions in which we seek to tackle some of the biggest issues facing our city. We looked at the future of Castlegate and asked whether the historic but run down area can turn itself around. An extract from that first piece is below.

Of course, Booker’s own social media accounts have also been pored over by researchers from Hope Not Hate, who uncovered a since-deleted Facebook post on his account from 2017. The post concludes by describing Islam as a “religion based on supremacy” and claims that by “not insisting that the Islamists adopt our culture, the United States is cutting its own throat with a politically correct knife”. Screenshots show that Booker’s account also liked a comment reacting to news that Sheffield’s then-mayor was Somalian, which read: “the turkeys are voting for xmas”.

The big picture: Strange creatures 🖼️

Street artist Phlegm has returned to Sheffield for the first time in several years. Two of his trademark characters turned up at the junction of Middlewood Road and Taplin Road in Hillsborough last week. Photo by Tim Dennell.

The big story: Why our city centre is underperforming — and what we can do about it

Top line: A new report has laid bare the challenges facing Sheffield city centre. A new report from the Centre for Cities, Checking Out: The varying performance of high streets across the country, found that Sheffield has the highest vacancy rate of any large city in the country, with 12.9% of its retail units currently empty. Is there anything we can do about it?

Four key factors: The report analysed millions of bank card transactions to look at where spending comes from and what it is spent on in city centres. The data (which covers the whole of 2024, when several new developments opened in Sheffield city centre), shows that city centre performance is influenced by four key factors: the size of the catchment area, incomes in the catchment, the geography of the economy and the size of the visitor economy.

High and lows: As well as having the highest vacancy rate of any large city, the report found that Sheffield has the smallest premium offer, the lowest range of restaurants and the highest amount of retail space per head when we are compared to other large city centres. Regionally the city accounts for just 1.1% of spend in Yorkshire, compared to Glasgow’s 5% share of Scottish spending. When you look at the four key factors the Centre for Cities identifies, it’s not hard to see why.

• Firstly, the city centre has a small catchment population (in the report, catchment areas are based on actual transactions data — places where people spend a set proportion of their income in the city centre). This makes Sheffield look more like a medium sized city than the large city it actually is. While it is the 6th largest city by population, it has the 18th largest catchment, less than half the size of Liverpool’s.
• The average income of its catchment area is also low — the lowest of any of the large cities. For example, incomes were 10 per cent higher on average in Manchester city centre’s catchment than in Sheffield’s.
• There are fewer good jobs in the city centre. Sheffield has the smallest share of high-skilled city centre jobs in any large city centre and office space also takes up a smaller share of overall commercial space than in other large cities.
• And finally, there’s not enough cash coming in from visitors, who account for only £1 in every £7 spent in Sheffield city centre, compared to £1 in every £5 on average in large cities.

Eating our lunch: The report provides yet more evidence that the influence of Meadowhall on Sheffield city centre has not been positive. It says that £1 in every £20 that residents of Sheffield spend in a physical shop is done in Sheffield city centre, while £1 in every £12 is spent in Meadowhall, which attracts around double the spend of the city centre.

Is there anything we can do about it? One of the key recommendations of the report is that cities should increase the size of the catchment by building more homes in inner city locations. Sheffield is doing this, with a plan to build around 20,000 new homes in the city centre over the next 14 years. But we are a long way behind places like Manchester, which already has about 100,000 people living in its city centre, a number which some forecast could grow to 250,000 over the next decade.

Bottom line: The Centre for Cities report isn’t really telling us anything we didn't know already, but it’s helpful to have it spelled out in black and white. Too few people visit our city centre, both from Sheffield and beyond, and those that do have less money than in other city centres. More housing in the city centre — and better transport to the city centre — must be top priorities.

Your Tribune briefing 🗞️

🏭 The government is considering plans to step in to save South Yorkshire-based Speciality Steels UK if its parent company collapses into administration after a court case this week. As previously reported by The Tribune, the firm was given a stay of execution in May after owner Sanjeev Gupta said he had found a prospective buyer. The case was adjourned for eight weeks to allow the sale to go through, but is due back before the High Court on 16 July, with no news on any new buyer. The Guardian reports that if the firm is wound up on Wednesday, business secretary Jonathan Reynolds is considering taking full control of the firm, which employs 1,450 people at plants in Rotherham and Stocksbridge.

🏗️ Sheffield council have unveiled the Attercliffe Strategic Regeneration Framework, a vision for how they want the area to transform over the next 10-15 years. They want Attercliffe to become the city’s newest neighbourhood by adding 3,000 new homes and 1,500 new jobs, revitalising the high street, bringing historic buildings back to life and improving Supertram access. An online consultation is now open and an in-person event will take place at the Steel City Stadium on 22 July from 4-8pm. For our 2023 piece about Attercliffe, click here.

🥩 A Sheffield school has been criticised after cutting meat from its menu. More than 100 people have signed a petition to reinstate meat to Sharrow School's lunch menu after some parents claimed their children were left with “bad stomachs and nutritional deficiencies”. The school currently serves a largely vegetarian menu with Quorn-based meat alternatives. The only animal protein options available are fish fingers, which are served once a week, and tuna mayonnaise, which is served once every three weeks. The school is yet to comment.

This week’s weather 🌥️

Our weather forecast comes from dedicated Sheffield weather service Steel City Skies, who say this week will be less settled and briefly fresher, with a slack, humid and showery pattern developing from midweek.

Monday 🌦 Areas of cloud, some very warm sunshine but also a scattering of heavy showers developing. Gusty WSW winds with highs of 26C.

Tuesday 🌦 Showers or longer periods of rain pushing in from the west, along with strong winds. Much cooler and fresher with highs of just 19C.

Wednesday ⛅ Largely fine and dry for midweek, with sunny spells, lighter winds from the west-northwest and warmer temperatures compared to Tuesday. Highs of 24C.

Thursday 🌦 A slack and humid pattern developing with a weak pressure pattern. Warm with light winds from the south-southwest with sunshine and the risk of downpours. Highs of 26C.

Friday ⛅ Uncertain shower risk, with some staying dry and fine but others catching a heavy shower or thunderstorm. Warm and humid with highs around 26C.

Outlook: A similar pattern likely extending into the weekend, with above average temperatures, some sunshine but the continued risk of downpours.

To see the full forecast and keep up to date with any changes to the outlook, follow Steel City Skies on Facebook.

The weekly Whitworth ✍️

Sheffield cartoonist James Whitworth with his take on the region’s continuing drought conditions and Yorkshire Water’s recent hosepipe ban.

Home of the week 🏡

In the 90s, Cornish Works was one of the first former industrial buildings to be redeveloped into residential accommodation in Kelham Island. This spacious, light and airy two-bedroom first floor apartment has lots of period features including exposed brickwork and arched windows, as well as stunning views over the River Don. It is on the market for £275,000.

Things to do 📆

Art 🖼️ This is the last week you can check out Checked Out, an art exhibition taking place at Wilkos in Hillsborough. The former retail site acts as a catalyst for 17 artists including Sheffield-based Conor Rogers and Melville the Third. According to the blurb, as you journey through the shop floor, artefacts “foretell uncertain futures” and “an emptiness echoes throughout, with reverberations of late stage capitalism”. Doors open Wed-Sat, 12-6pm.

Sport 🚴 On Wednesday, competitive cycling returns to the streets of the city centre with the Sheffield Grand Prix. Now in its eleventh year, the event attracts the UK’s top teams and riders to race around a 1.4km circuit right in the heart of the city. Each lap includes a cobbled section and sweeps past landmarks including the Crucible Theatre and Sheffield Town Hall, before finishing outside Browns restaurant on Union Street. Races get underway at 5pm.

Talk 🗣️ Also on Wednesday, join journalist Michelle Rawlins at Portland Works for a talk about Sheffield’s Women of Steel who stepped into traditionally male-dominated roles in the steel industry during World War II to support the war effort. When the men returned their contribution became forgotten but their remarkable story was eventually brought to light thanks to a grassroots campaign in the 2010s. The free 90-minute talk begins at 7pm.