HIGH Wycombe has the fourth highest rate of empty shops in southern England, a major study has found.

A national report on the state of Britain’s town and city centres records 13.5 per cent of empty shops in Wycombe.

Only Bracknell (19.3 per cent), Southampton (16.3 per cent) and Guildford (14.6 per cent) have higher empty shop rates.

The town has been hit hard in the recession. A survey by another firm and the Buck Free Press’ own study previously found about a quarter of shops are empty.

National figures also show a slowing in vacancies, the latest study found (see link, bottom of story for full report).

Traders to the eastern side of High Wycombe have blamed the Eden shopping centre for hitting trade since opening in March 2008.

Melanie Williams, spokesman for the High Wycombe Town Centre Partnership, a membership group for businesses, said: “Vacant units remain a challenge nationally.

“In High Wycombe we were fortunate to see vacancy rates improve in the run up to Christmas as many new shops opened in the town centre.”

She said the partnership had worked to dress, paint or use vacant units (see pic, right) and is working with Wycombe District Council to ‘simplify lease agreements’.

This would make it ‘much easier for businesses and new enterprise to use premises’ in White Hart Street and Church Street, which have been blighted by empty shops.

The study, by the Local Data Company, puts Aylesbury on 9.9 per cent, Reading on 9 per cent and Oxford on 7.9 per cent.

Margate in Kent tops the league of medium sized centres like Wycombe with 27.2 per cent while Wolverhampton tops the city table at 23.9 per cent.

It was commissioned by the British Property Federation, whose chief executive Liz Pearce said: “The fact of the matter is that Brits now do a lot more shopping over the web, so we’re seeing a fundamental reshaping of high streets.”

She said councils must be given greater powers to allow shops to be changed from one use to another.

The study included West Sussex and Brighton, Surrey outside the M25, Hampshire, The Isle of Wight, Dorset, Wiltshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire.

The Local Data Company said each shop had been counted in person and represented July to December last year.

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