One in eight Newport shopfronts empty — rates, theft, and two new independents

Newport’s 2026 city-centre survey put vacancy at about one in eight shopfronts. Retail relief and small-business rates relief still exist; the bill still lands. Traders told the chamber the problem is not a slogan about ‘the high street’ — it is insurance, theft, and a rates demand that does not care if the unit is a vape shop or a bookshop.

Chapter Two opened on Stow Hill this week. Hafod takes Friars Walk on 4 September. Tiny Rebel’s tap is the Rogerstone brewery bar — High Street closed in 2024. That is the other half of the same town. Both halves run.