Dudley now worst for empty shops

Dudley has more shops standing empty than any other town centre of a similar size in the country, damning figures revealed today.

The town centre has the highest number of vacant shops out of every medium-sized centre in the UK. Neighbouring West Bromwich is the second worst.

The gap between the best and worst performing towns is widening, a new report by the Local Data Company reveals, with one in three units vacant in some parts of the country.

A total of 29 per cent of shops in Dudley town centre are vacant, and 28 per cent in West Bromwich, while the lowest were in Falmouth in Cornwall, Walthamstow and Clapham Junction in London and Cirencester, Cotswolds, all of which have 6.6 per cent of shops empty.

The figures in Dudley and West Bromwich are around double the national average of one in seven shops.

A number of shops have shut in Dudley, including Spencers indoor market in July and Beatties department store last year.

Dudley Council leader, Councillor Les Jones, said: "There is still a difficult market out there in retail and shops are still suffering from the recession. This situation is not going to change overnight."

Councillor Jones said talks were continuing to bring a leading supermarket to the town and that he remained upbeat about the possible impact the store would have.