Grimsby has over a quarter of shops standing empty

Only one other English town has a higher level of empty shops than Grimsby

More than a quarter of Grimsby's shops are standing empty, according to a new report.

According to figures from the Local Data Company, 28% of the North East Lincolnshire town's shops are vacant. The national average is 12%.

Only Stockport, Greater Manchester, has a higher level of empty shops in the UK.

The leader of the council said Grimsby was planning to try to remove "surplus" shops from the centre.

The report's author, Matthew Hopkinson, said the figures were a "big wake-up call for the High Street".

He said that less than 50% of all sales were now made in high street shops, and that Grimsby should be worried by the findings.

"It demonstrates the changing nature of town centres and the relationship that shoppers have with the town centre, out-of-town, supermarkets and the internet," said Mr Hopkinson.

"It's a question of how you adapt, survive and thrive. Therefore there should be some degree of concern."

Chris Shaw. leader of North East Lincolnshire Council, said: "Shopping habits have changed over the last 10 to 20 years.

"The problem we've got in Grimsby is we still have an awful lot of shops now that haven't been used for quite a number of years.

"What we've got to work out is what do we actually need for a firm retail base and what is going to be surplus, and we need to take some of those surplus buildings out of the equation."