THE number of high street shops laying empty on UK high streets fell in the latter part of 2022, with some new stores coming to Whitehaven. 

In the past 12 months Whitehaven has seen the addition of a new craft store 'Haven Crafts' and a new cafe called 'Abby's Cafe', both of which are small, independent businesses. 

Figures in a report from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and Local Data Company (LDC) showed the overall vacancy rate improving to 13.8 per cent.

Local businessman, Gerard Richardson, said: "I think it’s great news, in fact it’s the best high street news for several years.

"Like every town weve seen a steady decline in national stores, many of which became dept laden when money was cheap in the 80s and 90s and Whitehaven also lost many local traders such as Birket's, Lamb's, Mark Taylor's and many more but it seems the trend is starting to reverse.

"Whitehaven town centre has seen two new businesses start in the last year, with only one potential closure which is M&Co.

"Whitehaven is still better placed than many other towns to attract small traders because we still have a decent stock of smallish shop units and I'd love to see more of them taken up.

"I think the multiple events being organised in the town centre this year will also help with footfall and I would encourage as many people as possible to come to the markets, fairs and exhibitions this year and revisit some of the shops they may have forgotten about."

This marked 0.1 percentage point improvement on the July-September period, the report showed.

READ MORE: Whitehaven businessman's plea to public to support the high street

The total was also 0.6 percentage points better than the same period last year and marked the fifth consecutive quarter of falling vacancy rates in the wake of the Covid pandemic.

Mr Richardson said: "Fingers crossed for more local, regional and national entrepreneurs to look at Whitehaven in 2023 because facts don't lie and the occupancy of town centre units is on the up for the first time in years."