Businesses in Birmingham’s Great Western Arcade fear the shopping centre will be empty within two years unless landlords can cut rents.

Shopkeepers in the centre said they had seen rent hikes of up to £3,000 a year from owners Aviva Investors while other centres are slashing rents and offering new stores zero-rent periods to keep shops occupied.

Bernard Diamond, owner of Breina’s clothes shop in the centre, said: “It’s a matter of trying to survive. If you have to pay rents then rates and then services charges as well as paying for staff then you’re priced out of the market before you even start.

“They quote the footfall going through the shopping centre at us but that’s footfall going through the shopping centre and going to the Bullring.”

Paul Lamb, owner of Sims Footwear, said: “They’re going to have to get realistic on the rents, otherwise everywhere’s going to close.”

There are 17 empty units in the arcade and Mr Lamb said that, out of those, 11 had been empty for between two and eight years.

He added: “It’s deteriorating. It’s just getting emptier and emptier. Birmingham is one of the biggest and most important shopping areas outside of London. If it goes on like this then I will have to shut up shop and go elsewhere.”

Mr Lamb said he had to sell about £5,000 of stock in a week to break even. But in this economic climate he was selling only between £3,000 and £4,000.

“We feel as if we are just being kicked and kicked every time and there’s nothing we can do about it,” he said.

Store owners are due to have a meeting with a representative from Aviva Investors on July 1.