Manufacturing premises in Local Enterprise Area Bristol proud to be part of defiant West

More than one in ten shops in the UK are now empty, research has found, but the West Midlands has actually seen an increase in footfall.

According to the British Retail Consortium (BRC), we are seeing the highest level of vacant premises since it began collecting data on High Street occupancy levels.

The BRC survey also said that overall footfall – which attempts to measure the number of shoppers – dropped by 0.4% on a year ago in the three months to October, with a big drop-off in numbers in October itself, when numbers fell by 2.6%.

However, the news was better locally. Over the past three months the West Midlands has outperformed the rest of the country in footfall terms. An increase of 4.2% was even better than that seen in Greater London (1.4%) the only other region to show increased footfall.

But in light of the gloomy national picture, the BRC is calling on the Government to take positive action to help the High Street.

Robertson said:  “Many retailers are battling stagnating sales and rising costs, and next year’s threatened business rates increase can only make matters worse. If the Government wants to breathe life back into our town centres and ensure the retail industry can play its full role in job creation it needs to freeze rates in 2013.

“It’s a little more cheering to see footfall suffering less than the previous quarter but shopper numbers were still no better than a year ago.

“The figures follow a similar pattern to our retail sales monitoring. September’s cold snap drew the crowds stocking up on warmer clothing. But, while the Olympics appears to have brought people out onto High Streets, that didn’t translate into a surge in spending.”

As the West continue towards economic prosperity businesses will continue to grow and expand. Expansion is a welcoming factor one that draws investors in.

Source: The Business Desk