Written question asked by Gloria De Piero (Labour) on Thursday, 19 January 2012, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 24 January 2012. It was answered by Grant Shapps (Conservative) on Tuesday, 24 January 2012 on behalf of the Department for Communities and Local Government.

Shops: Empty Property

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what proportion of shops are empty in (a) Ashfield constituency, (b) Nottinghamshire and (c) England; and what assessment he has made of these statistics.

Answer: This information is not held centrally. While there are commercial providers of such data, these tend to be focused on limited geographical areas such as town centres, rather than entire administrative areas.However, shop vacancies are naturally of concern, and are a visible indicator of the plight of our high streets. This is one of the reasons why the Prime Minister asked Mary Portas to undertake her review of the high street, the report of which was published on 13 December 2011. The report made a number of recommendations for revitalising struggling high streets, and the Government will be responding to these in the spring.

Secondary information