A North South divide has emerged in shop closures, a new survey has revealed.

“The big centres in London and the South East particularly are holding up well, while further north, vacancy rates are much higher,” said retail analyst the Local Data Company.

The good news from its report, “A Gathering Storm, is that the rise in shop vacancy rates is slowing.

Town centre vacancy rates have grown from just over 12 per cent at the end of last year, to 13 per cent at the end of June this year.

In response, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) said many town-centre problems have more fundamental causes than simply the economic slowdown and recovery alone will not overcome them.