It has been a valiant struggle, but the odds are stacking up against the survival of the British high street as we know it.

Reeling from a spending reverse by cash-strapped shoppers, town centre retailers are now facing a growing and powerful threat from out-of-town shopping developments.

And as Lloyds TSB prepares to close up to 1,000 bank branches after its acquisition of HBOS, experts fear that an unprecedented number of empty high street units will soon disfigure market towns across the country.

While upmarket retailers such as Harvey Nichols prepare to open their doors at Bristol's new £500 million Cabot Circus shopping centre next week, the contrast with the lack of investment on the traditional high street could not be more stark.

Andy Garbut, director at PricewaterhouseCoopers, said: “The high street still has a beating heart, but that's in more affluent areas. Elsewhere it's getting more fragile.”

PwC believes that the number of “voids”, or empty units, in high streets is averaging 10 per cent. Mr Garbut believes this will rise over the coming months as the economy teeters on the brink of a recession and consumers cut back even more.

He added that in some towns, the number of voids is closer to 30 per cent.

“We believe the void rate is increasing,” he said. “There are people like Starbucks opening sites, but there are more people rolling in than rolling out. And the problem is only going to get more acute after Christmas.”

Shopping centres equivalent in size to eight Bluewaters are due to open, including Cabot Circus and Westfield's White City in West London.

Property consultants said those that have opened this year, such as Liverpool One, have drawn a significant number of consumers away from neighbouring towns.

Meanwhile, mid-market chains such as Dolcis, Ethel Austin, Select Retail and MK One have closed dozens of high street stores after collapsing into administration.

The rapid growth of the internet, and sharp increases in rents and rates have placed added pressure on smaller operators. Paul Langston, an associate director at CACI, the property specialist, said that the retail environment was becoming polarised, with stores now grouped in different zones.

“You're starting to see a charity shop area, a discounter area and then the prime brands grouped in their zone,” he said. “We will see yet more voids in secondary high streets. There are only so many retailers to go around.”

He added: “There has been a lot of investment in the largest cities in recent years, but that investment can only go so far. It's not too much of a leap of faith to see less and less investment taking place in smaller towns and that is going to be a challenge for local authorities.”

Coffee bars, pub groups and mobile phone stores have been among the few operators with any significant expansion plans in the past two years.

JD Wetherspoon, the no-frills pubs chain, said on Wednesday that it would be interested in looking at some of the bank branch sites put up for sale by Lloyds TSB. More than 50 of its pubs are former bank branches.

Tragus, the restaurant group behind Strada and Café Rouge, said yesterday that it could also be interested.

Yet one property expert highlighted the struggle Lloyds TSB could face in finding buyers for branches it plans to close. “In this market? It's fair to say there will not be a lot of demand.”

A nation of shopkeepers

277,665 retail outlets in the UK in 2006

8% proportion of UK gross domestic product generated by retail sector

11% of UK workforce employed in retail

£265bn UK retail sales in 2007

Source: British Retail Consortium

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