
The Broadmarsh Centre in Nottingham (pictured) has been described as 'empty and soulless'
The crisis facing Britain's High Street could result in more than 200 shopping centres falling into administration, experts say.
The rising popularity of online shopping combined with the downfall of large 'anchor stores' such as BHS and Toys R Us causes a 'downward spiral', according to Nelson Blackley, Senior Research Associate at Nottingham Business School.
'If centres close, particularly in small towns, it will be catastrophic,' Mr Blackley told the
BBC.
'We have too many of them, doing exactly the same - the same range of stores and products - and basically that's not attractive,' he added.
Several centres at risk of closure are owned by US private equity firms with deals that would need refinancing.
Mr Blackley, Senior Research Associate at the National Retail Research Knowledge Exchange Centre, said that
online retail in the UK was growing faster than almost all other retail markets in the world.
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