The number of empty shops in Leicester has increased with nearly one in five now vacant, a survey claims.

New figures show that 18.24 per cent of the city centre's shops are unoccupied.

This compares with 14.12 per cent just six months ago.

Traders and business experts say the economic slump is still having an effect on retailing in the county.

Dermot Breen, city centre chairman of Leicestershire Chamber of Commerce, said: "Any empty shop is a tragedy because it means someone's business has gone up the spout, but it could also be that they have relocated to another address."

The figures, released by the Local Data Company, puts the city fourth in the East Midlands for the proportion of empty shops, behind Nottingham, at 23 per cent, Hinckley, 19.7 per cent, and Worksop, 18.3 per cent.

Nationally, it was 13 per cent in June, compared with 12 per cent last year.

City centre director Sarah Harrison disputed the figures. She said she could not think of any major empty spaces in the city centre.

"This is a huge increase of empty shops in a defined retail core area and I cannot see where it has come from," she said.

In Leicester, the figures were based on a survey of 840 shops in the city centre.

Independent jewellers Amabis, in High Street, blamed the increase in empty shops on the Highcross.

Assistant manager Anja Petterson, said: "People often just go straight to Highcross and don't come out to the other shops.

"It's a vicious circle – once one shop is empty it tends to have a knock-on effect on other businesses on the street."

Tom Brown, manager of Irish Clothing, which has three shops in Leicestershire, said the recession was to blame

He said: "We've just got to wait for it to be over.

"There have always been empty shops and there always will be, that's just business."

But Stuart Delahoy, who owns gift shop Set, in St Martins Square, finds it hard to believe the figures.

He said: "I think things are really starting to pick up.

"There are four new shops going to open up in St Martins before Christmas.

"Elsewhere in the city, high profile once-empty shops, like the old Habitat, are now filled, as are many of the smaller premises."

The city is 12th in the UK's list of large centres for vacant shops. Hinckley is the only place in Leicestershire with a higher percentage, with 19.7 per cent of its shops empty, although this figure has improved by 0.05 per cent.

Coalville has 15.6 per cent of units vacant, Loughborough 15.1 and Melton 12.6. They have all seen a small increase.

Phil Garton, a retail expert at De Montfort University, said the proportion of empty units was likely to increase further.

He said: "There's been a recession and people are spending less. Retailers have also been retrenching and deciding to pull shops out of areas where trade is too marginal for them to stay."

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