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A shopping centre boss has questioned the findings of a survey which puts Bradford at the top of a national blacklist of city centres hit hardest by the credit crunch as shoppers keep their purses shut.

A survey by Retail Week magazine said that only 8.6 per cent of shoppers in the city were carrying on spending as normal due to the rising cost of living, including hikes in food and fuel prices.

The survey revealed a North-South divide with the 15 worst affected towns and cities being in the North and Midlands, while centres in the South were yet to feel the pinch.

The three centres where most shoppers were spending less were Bradford, Barnsley and Walsall in the Midlands.

But Bill McCormack, deputy manager of the Kirkgate Centre in Bradford, said the number of shoppers visiting the centre was holding up and often remained ahead of national trends. He said: " I haven't seen the survey but I don't know what they base their figures on.

"Everyone knows that people are having to watch their spending and that times are tough for retailers. In the current economic climate we are seeing plenty of sales in the shops to attract bargain hunters.

"Our weekly footfall figures show that the number of people visiting the Kirkgate Centre is slightly ahead of this time last year. The most recent figures were 1.3 per cent up in the same week in 2007."

Although retailers were reluctant to discuss trading figures, the centre's management had not had any negative feedback from tenants about spending patterns.

Mr McCormack said the Kirkgate Centre continued to see new shops opening up, most recently an Apple computer centre.

"I doubt if retailers would be wanting to come in if things were so bad," he said.

Bob Parker, Bradford city centre manager, echoed Mr McCormack's views. He said there had been no evidence of a sudden fall-off in spending, even though it was recognised that the climate was becoming more difficult.

He said: "If anything, we are expecting Bradford to weather the current economic downturn better than Leeds. Things have been harder here for a few years but seem to have bottomed out whereas Leeds may suffer a reduction in retail spending as the credit crunch bites.

"While things are definitely tougher for many retailers, from our perspective we believe that trade is generally holding up."

The Retail Week survey came as retailer Next announced a five per cent fall in sales in its 340 stores for the first quarter of 2008. Sales were £518m against £545m in 2007. Next Directory catalogue sales were also down by one per cent on last year.

The company remains cautious about the outlook as financial pressures on its customers from cost increases in food, fuel, mortgage repayments and taxation look set to continue. Next expects sales in the second quarter to improve and has seen a marked upturn in sales since the arrival of warm weather.

5:05pm Friday 9th May 2008

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