Town centre vacancies last month hit the highest figure recorded by the BRC-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor since the service was first set up in July 2011.
October's national vacancy rate in high streets and shopping centres in the UK was 11.3%, with Northern Ireland, Wales and the north & Yorkshire recording the worst level of empty shops at 20.0%, 15.1% and 14.6% respectively.

Two months ago, The Local Data Company - which also monitors store vacancies - published figures showing that the percentage of empty shops jumped to 14.6% in February this year, representing the highest number of vacancies in four years. The LDC figures suggested that the situation was stabilising, with the figure unchanged at the end of June.

The BRC-KPMG monitor also looked at footfall, which in the three months to October was 0.4% lower than a year ago - but better than the 3.3% fall in the previous quarter. A breakdown shows that shopper numbers weakened on the high street in particular, with a 0.9% fall, compared with a rise in both out-of-town (0.2%) and shopping centre locations (0.1%).

Hardest-hit locations in the past three months were the east (-4.1%), the south west (-4.0%) and Scotland (-3.9%). Northern Ireland (14.4%), the West Midlands (4.2%) and Greater London (1.4%) were the only regions to show increased footfall.

Said BRC director general Stephen Robertson: "This new high in empty shop numbers really sets alarm bells ringing. It's the worst vacancy rate since the survey began in July 2011 and confirms that financial challenges for both customers and retailers are far from over.

"Many retailers are battling stagnating sales and rising costs, and next year's threatened business rates increase can only make matters worse."

He went on: "It's a little more cheering to see footfall suffering less than the previous quarter but shopper numbers were still no better than a year ago."

He added that the figures followed a similar pattern to the BRC's retail sales monitoring.