The Local Data Company (LDC) Retail Unit data offers insights into the locations and characteristics of retail activity and vacancy across the Uk. Held by GeoDS and supplied by the Local Data Company (LDC), the datasets contain details of retail locations in the UK, which have been surveyed by LDC.
The data file includes:
- Business name and type (independent/chain)
- Retail classification (Category, Subcategory inc. Vacancy)
- Chain and holding company information
- Full address (Unit, Building, Street, Town, Postcode, County, Region)
- Geographic coordinates (Latitude, Longitude)
- Business rates valuation (VOA)
- Temporal information (Created Date, Closed Date, Status)
If you are interested in local authority district level aggregated data, please see the Safeguarded record.
Please note that this dataset cannot be accessed via our service by local authorities or organisations working with/for local authorities or associated entities such as Business Improvement Districts or Combined Authorities.
Content
This historical snapshot covers the period from 2015-01-01 to 2025-09-30 and contains all retail unit records with their created and (if applicable) closed dates, enabling temporal analysis of retail activity.
For detailed description of the columns contained within the data, see the Variable Dictionary; and for an overview of the characteristics of the data, see the Data Summary. These files can be downloaded from the bottom of this page.
Earlier Data
This data set covers the period 2015 to 2025-09-30. Data for 2014 is available as a separate point-in-time snapshot rather than the longitudinal format used in this dataset. This earlier snapshot uses a slightly different category classification scheme, so care should be taken when comparing across time periods.
Quality, Representation and Bias
LDC surveys retail locations across the UK, with coverage focused on high streets, shopping centres, and retail parks. Rural and smaller retail locations may be underrepresented.
The survey representation varies overtime with the most recent years being the most complete, therefore additional caution should be taken with temporal analysis.
