A survey has revealed that 15% of Lincoln’s shops are unused and empty.
The study by the Local Data Company (LDC) has revealed that the number of unused commercial buildings has risen by 2% on last year. This figure leaves Lincoln with the 4th highest amount of unused shops in the county and 9th in the region behind places such as Grimsby, Gainsborough and Scunthorpe.
Mick Lake from Lincoln Business Improvement Group (Lincoln BIG) questioned the legitimacy of the statistics.
“When you look at the city centre individually and filter the data out, the data doesn’t make such bad reading at all.”
“In the Lincoln City Centre we have got 483 retail units in the city centre and currently 23 of these are vacant, which is a vacancy rate of 4.8%.”
Economist Juliana Siwale agreed that the fixtures should not be taken at face value.
“I think you have to put the figures in context, sometimes percentages can be misleading.”