WE produce our own survey and we certainly count things in a different way to LDC. We've got a knowledge about the retail market which a hired researcher won't have and if we see an empty unit which we know has been let, we won't count it. They will.

Even allowing for that, I cannot understand how they have arrived at a vacancy rate of 29 per cent for a retail destination of Nottingham's size and scale. For a major UK city, it is just bizarre.

I know that they count parts of the city that we don't but I doubt that on its own is the reason for the discrepancy. They also did their count in November, when many of the units in Broadmarsh had been cleared for redevelopment, and I'm sure that has had an impact on this number.

But if this is the case, LDC needs to be explaining these numbers much better. You shouldn't be suggesting Nottingham has a particular problem when there are specific, one-off reasons for a large chunk of the vacancies.

Nottingham faces the same challenges that all major retail destinations do, and it's got to think hard about what it does with vacant retail property in the online era. But the idea that a city which had the sixth-biggest retail spend in June is somehow on its knees by November is complete nonsense.

I'm baffled by their figure. I recently let a unit on one of the major shopping streets in the city centre and I had a queue of six retailers interested. We're also on the verge of major investment by CSC, which can now develop both shopping centres in a compatible way.

I just do not recognise the picture that LDC paints.

Ben Tebbutt is a director of Nottingham commercial property consultancy FHP