TRADERS and business leaders have rebuffed claims that more than a quarter of shops in the East Midlands could close in the next five years.
A new study published by the Centre for Retail Research today forecasts 5,656 – or 27 per cent – of retail premises in the region will shut by 2018.
But Karina Wells, co-ordinator for Totally Locally West Bridgford, a campaign group that supports independent shops, was more hopeful for the future.
She said: "They are probably quite right that shops will be closing but I don't think they will be closed forever. Something else will come along instead.
"People are creative and things will happen. As long as they're offering quality goods there will be demand."
A little extra help from councils and landlords could also help local high streets continue to thrive, she added.
"Every era has had a period of doom and gloom. It's how you come out of it and pull together," she said.
"Things move on but that doesn't necessarily mean that therefore it's a graveyard.
"The way people look at the high street, in my view they have an image of what it used to be like in Victorian times. But the high street has become a different place.
"Everybody in West Bridgford seems to spend money on going for a coffee – ten years ago we would never think of doing that."
The Centre for Retail Research's study, called Retail Futures 2018, also claims business operating costs have gone up by 20 per cent since 2006, with the high street's share of consumer spending set to dip from 50 per cent in 2000 to 40.2 per cent by next year..
Across the UK, it forecasts nearly 62,000 – or 22 per cent – of shops will close by 2018.
As a result, 316,000 jobs will be lost, according to the study.
The research calls for millions to be spent on turning empty shops into new homes, leisure outlets, offices and classrooms.
Jeff Allen, chairman of the Nottingham Business Improvement District, said the study "merely tell us what we already know."
"The issue is not whether change is needed but what that change will be," he said.
Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the Centre for Retail Research, who carried out the study, said: "Retailers have to make clear and strategic responses to the changing pattern of how consumers shop which includes tactical decisions.
"They also need to fully integrate these physical stores with their websites, smart phone offering and social media community coherently. I think retail stores will remain an important, although smaller, part of the shopping process as online retail continues to grow."
