One empty unit in Dartford's core High Street, a 2% vacancy rate against 13.7% nationally. Primark has stood empty since January; the Priory Centre is at 10.3%.
One shop unit was empty in the stretch of Dartford High Street the council counts as the town centre’s core, a vacancy rate of 2%. The national rate at the same sort of time was 13.7%.
That figure is in a report going to Dartford Borough Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee on Tuesday 8 September, written after the Labour group called the subject in for scrutiny. (Dartford Town Centre: Retail/Office Units and Use, Overview and Scrutiny Committee, 8 September 2026)
The council surveys the ground floors of the “Core Frontage”, defined in the adopted Dartford Plan as 2 to 64 High Street, once a year. Its published results run:
- 2024/25: 2%, one unit
- 2023/24: 5%, three units
- 2022/23: 2%
The Dartford Plan sets a target range of 0 to 5%, and the report says that target “has not been exceeded in recent years”. A new survey covering 2025/26 is being prepared.
The shopping centres are emptier than the High Street
The same report gives vacancy rates for the two covered centres, from a survey in summer 2025:
| Location | Vacancy rate | Empty units |
|---|---|---|
| High Street Core Frontage (2-64) | 2% | 1 |
| Orchards Shopping Centre | 5.6% | 2 |
| Priory Centre | 10.3% | 3 |
For comparison, the report cites Savills putting the national town centre vacancy rate at 13.7% in the first quarter of 2025, and quotes 2024 figures from a Medway study of 17.5% in Chatham, 10% in Gillingham, 9.2% in Rochester and 7.2% in Strood. Elsewhere in the South East it lists Maidstone at 7%, Slough at 9% and Guildford at 8.1%.
The council adds its own health warning, and it is worth repeating: these surveys cover different areas and different kinds of town, so the comparison is a broad indicator rather than a league table. Dartford’s 2% covers the ground floors of 2 to 64 High Street only, not the whole town centre.
The empty units that are named
The report names the ones that matter:
- Former Primark, which closed in January 2026. It spans the High Street and the Orchards Shopping Centre, and officers say a unit that size “is likely to take longer” to fill than a normal shop.
- 8-10 High Street, the former Halifax bank, empty more than 12 months. Building work started in April 2026 under a permission granted in June 2023, and the ground floor stays commercial.
- 45 High Street, empty over five years, sold in March 2026. Its new owners have applied to turn it into flats, a scheme the Georgian Group has objected to.
- The former Post Office, where building work has just finished and the ground floor unit is now being advertised to let.
- Cycle King, vacant since 2025.
Two smaller empty units in Lowfield Street have been served with section 215 notices, which require an owner to tidy a property up. The report is blunt about the limit of that power: “Planning powers do not however allow the Council to require owners to put the properties into active use.”
Three listed buildings, empty for years
Officers name three: 45 High Street, the Jolly Miller on Overy Liberty and the Two Brewers. The Jolly Miller is inspected regularly and is in good repair, so there is no case for enforcement. The Two Brewers has been sold and the council is talking to the new owners.
The report says an Urgent Works Notice, which is the council stating it intends to do the work itself rather than ordering the owner to, “is under consideration for the deteriorating Listed Buildings”. It does not say which ones. A Repairs Notice, the stronger power, leads to compulsory purchase, a public inquiry and the council paying for the repairs, which is why councils rarely use it.
There is a newer tool the report weighs up without committing to it. High Street Rental Auctions came in under the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023. They let a council force a landlord to let out a unit that has been empty for 12 months. The council notes it would first need surveys, a “significant amount of resource” and an interested occupier.
Gambling premises have fallen, not risen
The scrutiny request asked about betting shops and adult gaming centres. The answer runs against the usual assumption. The last new application in the town centre was in 2022, and since then the bingo hall and two betting shops have gone. Five premises are licensed now:
| Premises | Address |
|---|---|
| Paddy Power | 3 High Street |
| Coral | 27 High Street |
| Crown Slots | Lowfield Street |
| Betfred | Spital Street |
| Admiral Casino | 25 High Street |
A sixth, Merkur Slots in Hythe Street, holds a gambling licence it has never implemented; its planning permission was refused and the appeal withdrawn.
The report also explains why the council cannot stop a shop becoming a vape shop. The 2020 changes to the Use Classes Order put most shops, cafes, offices, gyms and clinics into a single class, Class E. Moving between them is not development at all, so no planning permission is needed.
Rents put Dartford near the top of the Kent market
The report gives two figures a reader can hold on to. Zone A retail rents in Dartford are around £400 per square metre, which officers say places the town “towards the stronger end of the Kent market”. Office rents are around £250 per square metre, comparable with Maidstone, above several other Kent centres and below Sevenoaks and Tunbridge Wells. The strongest office demand in the borough is at Crossways Business Park rather than in the town centre, where the office stock is older.
The council does not record office occupancy rates at all, and says owners of empty town centre offices are mostly discussing changes of use or planning to convert to flats under permitted development.
What it means for you
- The core High Street is not the problem the national picture suggests. One empty unit in 2 to 64 High Street is a genuinely low number, and the council’s own explanation is that its Local Plan deliberately shrank the protected shopping area rather than defending floorspace nobody wants.
- The big empty unit to watch is Primark. It is the one the council itself flags as the town centre’s main challenge, and it will not be filled quickly.
- Nothing here forces a landlord to reopen a shop. Section 215 notices deal with appearance; rental auctions and repairs notices are both possible and both expensive.
- The next decision is on 24 September, when Cabinet is asked to agree the baseline for a Dartford Town Centre Masterplan and to start public engagement on it. That is the point at which residents get a say. (Dartford Borough Council calendar of meetings)
The Overview and Scrutiny Committee meets at 7pm on 8 September at the Civic Centre, Home Gardens. Its papers, including this report, are published in full on the council’s website. (Agenda, Overview and Scrutiny Committee, 8 September 2026)
Related: 45 High Street’s application to become flats, a fifth storey and 26 flats proposed in Hythe Street, and Dartford planning applications, and how to comment.
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