One in three shops is vacant in some shopping centres, according to a new study that shows “many high streets and town centres are in a critical, but stable condition”.

The words are those of Liz Peace, chief executive of the British Property Federation who added: “Their recovery is not just going to happen, but will need nursing.”

She was responding to a survey of more than 1,000 UK shopping centres by the Local Data Company.

Titled “The good, the bad and the (very) ugly”, the report shows that the three-fold increase in vacancy rates since 2007 has stopped with town centre vacancy rates stabilising at 14.5 per cent.

Generally, the Midlands and the North have been hardest hit, but the South has not proved immune either.

While the top 10 high-vacancy rates in large centres (those with 400 and more shops) and medium centres (between 200 and 399) are mostly held by towns north of Watford, for small centres (those with between 50 and 199 shops) the picture is blurred.

In fact, several small southern centres carry some of the country’s highest vacancy rates.

The worst hit high street in the country, for example, is Leigh Park in Hampshire with a vacancy rate of a staggering 36.4 per cent. Next is Margate in Kent (at 36.1 per cent), and, surprisingly, Wandsworth in South London (at 31.5 per cent).

North Cheam in Surrey did not do too well either (at 27.9 per cent), nor did Lee Green, South London again (at 25.9 per cent).

“The stark reality is that Great Britain has too many shops in the wrong locations and of the wrong size,” said Local Data Company director Matthew Hopkinson.

Mr Hopkinson, who is the report’s author, added: “The diversity of shop vacancy rates is clear evidence that a local approach is required that ties in with consumer needs and the realities of modern retailing.”