A recent national survey of town centres with the largest number of empty shops placed West Bromwich 4th.
The Mind the Gap survey found over one in four shops in West Bromwich empty.
With 27.1% of the shops vacant, an increase from the previous year, West Bromwich suffered from more than twice the national average of empty town centre shops.
Nationally, the Conservative party is keen to promote small or medium sized businesses as employment and growth generators. Most of the high street shops in West Bromwich are in this category.
Locally, the Conservative party advocates free parking in council owned car parks to encourage shoppers to return to local high streets throughout the borough.
Sandwell’s Labour council acknowledges the link between free parking and volumes of trade. For a couple of weeks before Christmas it introduces free parking to boost business. That is scant comfort to traders who have to operate the whole year round and its effect is very limited.
High street shops are a valuable community resource. Nothing smacks of dereliction more than empty shuttered shops and this further discourages trade. When confronted with this survey, local Labour councillors are quoted as either whining about a north/south divide or blandly forecasting improvements. They offered no solution to a problem that needs solving.