It's still a struggle on the High Street for Midland retailers, according to new research by Cushman & Wakefield - but things are improving marginally.

The firm's latest retail availability study shows the Midlands has the highest number of available retail units outside of outer London, well above the national average.

The average availability of retail units across Great Britain's top streets was 9.8 per cent at the beginning of August 2010, down from 11.1 per cent in May and the lowest level of retail availability recorded in the last 18 months. 

Despite this, the figure for the Midlands remains at 12.1 per cent, second only to outer London. The high level of availability indicates that the market is still tough for retailers in the region, although Cushman & Wakefield's Retail Partner Rob Alston, based in Birmingham, said the overall picture was patchy.

He said: "In the Midlands we are seeing variable demand in different locations. In the larger city centres, such as Birmingham, there is still reasonable demand from retailers, but the smaller towns are more sluggish. 

"In more affluent areas and market towns, demand is still strong and, in some instances, we are even seeing some rental growth."

Nationally, C&W's survey found that retailers have seen a marginal improvement in the retail market during the past six months, and this appears to have filtered through to retail availability levels, which have fallen overall by 1.3 per cent since May. In the Midlands, the figure is 0.69 per cent.

During the survey, the prime areas of a sample of key towns across all regions of Great Britain were examined in detail to gain a clearer picture of the level of retail availability (see chart below). The lowest levels of availability (including those units in administration) as at 1 August 2010 in the main retail areas were found to be in Central London (5.1 per cent) and the North (7.7 per cent), compared to Outer London (17.4 per cent) and the Midlands (12.1 per cent).

It remains to be seen how the coalition government's budget measures will impact on consumer confidence and spending, given the VAT rise in January 2011 and the possible negative impact of public spending cuts on unemployment. 

However, there is evidence that retail sales have actually held up so far this year, on the back on low interest rates, and there may even be a rush by consumers in late 2010 to beat the VAT rise.

Mr Alston added: "It's still tough out there for the retail market in the Midlands, but we remain cautiously optimistic that the overall level of availability will continue to edge downwards in the coming months. However, it is clear that retailer demand and therefore availability will differ widely by location. 

"Birmingham received a boost recently with the news that US fashion chain Forever 21 was to open a major store in the city this autumn, in a deal brokered by ourselves. 

"Whilst deals like this are good news for the bigger locations, some smaller towns are continuing to struggle to attract significant retailer interest and availability in these locations is expected to remain high for some time to come."