News - Midlands
One in five shops empty across the Midlands
The decline of Britain’s high streets has continued with one in five shops standing empty across town centres in the Midlands, according the latest Local Data Company (LDC) report. In the Midlands, vacancies rose by 46 per cent in the second half of 2009. Liz Peace, chief executive of the British Property Federation, said: “We must encourage councils to make it easier for people to convert shops, and people must accept that we won’t go back to the high streets of yesteryear.”