News

Empty shop figures are wrong

By Hugh Fort
February 22, 2010

A new survey claiming Bracknell has some of the highest levels of empty shop units in the country has been rubbished by the town’s landlords.

Bracknell Regeneration Partnership (BRP) says the research carried out by the Local Data Company (LDC) presents a false picture of the situation.

The survey claimed that more than 20 per cent, around 38, of the 191 shops in Bracknell town centre were empty – the worst figures in the South.

However, BRP says the figures is much lower, with 8.8 per cent or 17 units unoccupied.

Helen Barnett, marketing manager for the company, told getbracknell the survey had taken in a number of units that were left empty deliberately because they were earmarked for demolition as part of the ongoing regeneration of the town.

She said units had also been included that were empty, but still leased by business owners in the town.

She explained: “The survey’s figures don’t match our own figures – they are much higher.

“There are empty units in Market Street which we are not trying to lease because they are earmarked for demolition.

“The other units they have included appear to be empty but are still leased by people who have either moved out of town or moved elsewhere in town.

“Because they are still leased, there may be nothing in them, but we can’t do anything about getting anyone in to fill them because someone is still paying for them.

“Bracknell is actually bucking the trend because there are people who want to move here.”

She admitted the current units in town were largely too small for certain businesses, but insisted there was no shortage of people wanting town centre units.

Richard Haynes, Bracknell Forest Council’s new head of regeneration and enterprise, also felt the figures in the survey were not right.

He said: “I saw some of the news reports about the survey.

“I went through a lot of data to look at whether it was correct or not and it’s certainly much higher than our figures suggest.”

Helen added the BRP constantly checks shop units and has a number of systems in place to help new businesses in the town.

She added there is a lot of interest in the unoccupied units in and around the town.

According to the data collected in the survey, 12.4 per cent of all the shop units in Britain stand empty.

The survey says the worst area for empty shops was the seaside resort of Margate in Kent, with Wolverhampton and Bradford also featuring highly.

Nearby Wokingham was not surveyed, but the poll said around nine per cent of units in Reading were empty.

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Clearly companies do not want to move into the area due to the uncertainty of the Regeneration. Bracknells shopping centre is appalling, to think I moved her 25 years ago because I fell in love with it,the varied shops and places to eat there was back then now I don't even shop in the town. How can you support your home town when there is nothing here.

Angie Rolfe
4/03/2010 at 11:48

My favourite clothes store in Bracknell has just closed down too... it was the only reason I ever shopped in Bracknell, now I have no reason to.

CMA
23/02/2010 at 12:23

Both ways of looking at this are correct, we're just talking about degrees of terrible. It's either very bad, or very, very bad, depending on whos version you take. It's a cardboard cutout toytown with nothing left to attract shoppers. BRP is just jobs for the boys, forever shuffling paperwork and sending out positive press releases to mask the real decay.