The rise in town centre shop vacancy rates appears to have peaked, according to new research released this week.

 LDC director Matthew Hopkinson described the decrease as “an encouraging improvement in shop vacancy rates nationally, albeit a small one.

“The good news is that the shops vacancy rate has stabilised within the 14-14.6% range since August 2010, whilst prior to this we recorded a threefold increase.”

He suggested that the seamlessness of omnichannel retailing could be contributing to the stability and that the rise in the number of vacant shops in Britain may now have been halted – “assuming that nothing unforeseen happens to the UK economy and that this month’s quarter rent day doesn’t trigger any retailer administrations”.

He added that as the rise in empty shops appears to have peaked, now was the time to take positive action to address the 23,406 shops that lie empty in Britain’s top 650 town centres and a similar number outside of them.