WORCESTER'S bustling city centre is once again outperforming the region for shop occupancy rates - as more traders eye it up.

New data on the city centre's voids reveals how nearly 87 per cent of the units are currently filled, leaving just 96 out of 732 commercial premises empty.

The vacancy rate stands at just 13.1 per cent, below the West Midlands average of 16.2 per cent.

The data includes commercial premises as well as retail ones, taking in offices and workshops, such as the former gym opposite Orchard House in Farrier Street and the old Funk nightclub in The Butts.

It follows a new report out by the Local Data Company revealing a big north-south divide in town and city centres, with nearly one of five northern premises lying empty.

The new figure for Worcester has been compiled by the city's Business Improvement District (BID), which keeps a running tally on the situation.

Adrian Field, from the BID, said: "We keep data on all the city centre units within the BID area and are quite tough on what we include - for example those units underneath the arches by Orchard House (in Farrier Street) are part of these figures even though they might not be actively marketed.

"January is always likely to be the toughest month just after Christmas but things have remained steady, a lot of the pop-up shops have gone but we know there is real interest in them.

"The data is very robust."

The picture is also set to improve further as despite Russell & Bromley closing down its High Street shop in March, fragrance firm L'occitane is taking over the old Phones 4u outlet at the end of February and the old Republic is becoming a Fraser Hart Jewellers next month.

The unit used as a Simply Eat at The Cross is also being taken over by El Mexicana, a restaurant which has outlets in cities like London, Sheffield and Cambridge.

Nationally the vacancy rate stands at 13.3 per cent, mainly due to London's figure of just 8.7 per cent skewing it considerably.

The Local Data Company says one in five units in the UK have been empty for more than three years, amounting to nearly 10,000.

Matthew Hopkinson, a director for the research company, said: "This is the equivalent of five Manchesters lying empty.

"At a regional level the polarisation between the north and the south is as wide as ever with London's vacancy rate being less than half that of the northern regions."

Burslem, in Staffordshire is the worst performing town with a vacancy rate of 29.4 per cent.