• Foreword
• Introduction
• Executive summary
• The database
• The classification of parks
• Average service charge
• Service charges components
• Average budgets 2007
• Reconciled service charge cost comparison to OSCAR 2006
• Budget comparison to 2007
• Budget to reconciliation comparison 2006
• Reconciled service charges by size and park class
• Reconciled service charges by location and park class
• Reconciled service charges by location, size and park class (benchmarks)
• Budgets by location, size and park class (benchmarks)
• Definition of terms
• Geographical areas
• Expenditure definitions
• Data contributors
• Contact us
• Download OSCAR PDF

Definition of terms

Types of Retail Parks

These have been defined by reference to Planning Unit use:

• Bulky Goods Parks (65%+ of unit users in 'Bulky Goods'), 74 Parks are in this classification.
• Retail Parks (under 30% unit users in 'fashion' and clothing and not above 65% of unit users in 'Bulky Goods'), 117 Parks are included.
• Shopping Parks (30%+ of unit users in 'fashion' and clothing or usually found in high street locations, but not more than 65% in 'Bulky Goods'), information from 72 Parks included.

Size bands

These have been selected as follows:

• Under 100,000 sq ft (9,290 sq m) covering 106 Parks.
• Over 100,000 sq ft (9,290 sq m) but less than 200,000 sq ft (18,580 sq m) including 114 Parks.
• Over 200,000 sq ft (18,580 sq m) covering 43 Parks.
• This generally represents a fairly even distribution between the first two categories, while the latter one reflects the lesser numbers of larger Parks in existence.

Location

These are defined and shown on page 29. This selection was adopted because of the lack of a major influence on 'cost of services' for Retail Parks in London and the South East, which is contrary to both Retail OSCAR and Office OSCAR research. We have therefore adopted a straight North-South divide. This has produced a less balanced division with only roughly a third of the data within Region 2.

OSCAR

OSCAR is an acronym for Office Service Charge Analysis Research. This analysis was commenced by Jones Lang LaSalle over two decades ago dealing initially only with office service charges. This was joined by Retail OSCAR after a few years dealing with shopping centre service charges. The OSCAR name has been retained for Retail Park OSCAR.