There was more bad news for high streets this week, with the British Retail Consortium reporting that, of all shopping areas, they sustained the biggest drop in footfall in October.
The number of shoppers in high streets during the month fell by 3.6% when compared with last October. Footfall in shopping centres was down 2.9%, but it improved slightly in out-of-town locations, down just 1.2%.

Overall, October's footfall was 2.9% lower than a year ago, according to the BRC-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor - and down even from the 2.4% fall in September this year.

On a three-month rolling basis, this is the worst performance since the start of the year.

Shops in the east were the only ones reporting positive footfall, up 0.8% compared with a year earlier.

BRC director general Helen Dickinson said: "It's disappointing to see shopper numbers falling again after September's slowdown, with only one area of the UK showing growth. Although recent months have hinted at economic recovery, many of us are still cautious and keen to manage budgets ahead of Christmas.

"High street and shopping centre footfall both took a hit in October, while out-of-town fared a little better. This trend partially reflects our recent sales figures, which showed that furniture and homewares - often sited in retail parks - had a decent showing while other categories were more subdued, especially fashion."

Diane Wehrle, retail insights director at Springboard, added: "Footfall trends have now been on an accelerating downward slide for three months from an annual fall of just 0.9% in August, to 2.4% in September and then to 2.9% in October. And, in October, as the weather worsened, high streets bore more of the brunt.

"The likelihood of the weather being at least part of the issue is substantiated by the fact that this replicates a similar trend to October last year when high streets recorded a drop in footfall."

The town centre vacancy rate in the UK was 11.1% in October 2013, unchanged from July's rate.