PHILIP Green’s retail business Arcadia announced yesterday that it would close twice as many stores across the UK as it had earlier indicated.

Arcadia said last week that 23 shops, including Topshop, Burton and Dorothy Perkins stores, would shut. Yesterday another 25 closures were confirmed, largely affecting the Evans and Miss Selfridge brands.

The closures further add to the impression that our high streets are dying by a thousand cuts, scarred by empty stores and abandoned banks.

The Arcadia closures follow Marks and Spencer’s plans to close 145 stores as a result of a slump in sales and profits. Other recent casualties include Debenhams and Jamie Oliver’s Italian restaurant chain. LK Bennett recently confirmed the closure of 15 stores in the UK and Laura Ashley said it would shut 40. Carpet Right and Superdry have issued profit warnings, raising fears the closures will continue.

It has been predicted that up to a fifth of Scottish shops could close over the next decade and the Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) has called for the Scottish Government to cut the rates “burden” borne by retailers.

“These announcements are further evidence of the immense pressures facing retailers across Scotland,” said Ewan MacDonald-Russell, SRC head of policy. “A sluggish economy, high public policy costs and the continued effect of retail transformation are combining to make trading as challenging as at any time. Regrettably it’s clear that for many retailers the costs of operating from physical premises are becoming intolerable.”

He said business rates remained “onerous”, with retailers accounting for over a fifth of all rates paid.

“Government needs to take action to reduce this burden – returning the Large Business Supplement to parity with England would be a sensible place to start.”

MacDonald-Russell said the higher Large Business Supplement was costing Scottish Retailers an extra £12 million a year.

“The reality is, if high costs lead to fewer businesses operating on the High Street, ultimately that will translate to lower business rates revenues. Furthermore, once a shop closes it increases the risk other proximate stores will also close as footfall in that street diminishes, and once a store closes in many cases it doesn’t reopen. That means the loss of revenue can be permanent. That’s why setting high business rates is bad both for business but also for government.”

Shops may still have a part to play in high streets, some town centres are moving away from the predominantly retail model towards a more comprehensive vision of 21st-century town centres; attractive places with housing, public services, leisure attractions and centres for arts and crafts as well as niche independent retailers.

Over the last decade there has been a concerted attempt to regenerate town centres and this is starting to bear fruit – so much so that countries across the world are beginning to copy Scotland’s example, according to Phil Prentice, chief officer of the Scotland’s Towns Partnership.

“Everybody is now looking to Scotland and in the last month we have had both Sweden and Portugal saying they are going to copy what we have done,” he said.

“Scotland genuinely seems to be world leading in this respect. Lots of places like Spain are really struggling and while on the face of it the Scottish high street looks depressing, if you scratch below the surface there is a lot going on.”

He added: “I am not one bit worried about the high street. It is going to look a bit different and while there will always be a core of retail it will be better designed for the people around it.”

Andy Milne, chief executive of Surf – Scotland’s Regeneration Forum – said: “Determined action to protect town centres began at a government level over a decade ago when the damage caused by the rising popularity of online shopping and the recession became obvious. People could see online shopping was only going to increase and we would be struggling against an impossible tide so it was realised we really needed to do something else.”

As a result, the Scottish Government set up a national town centre review of the causes of town centre decline. One of the most important outcomes was the “town centre first principle” which directed local authorities to consider building new schools and other public buildings in the town centre rather than on an out-of-town site.

At the same time as the review was set up here, retail consultant Mary Portas was given the job of looking at English town centres.

“She did it purely from a retail focus which was never going to hold,” said Milne.

“Scotland has taken a much wider and more creative approach and the collaborative focus on the problem is significantly ahead of what is happening in England.

“People are understandably still depressed about how their town centre looks but there is a process in hand that genuinely has some good prospects. You can see this in places like Lochgelly, Kilmarnock and Irvine where they are taking a purposeful and creative approach to solving substantial problems. I think Scotland can tell a reasonably constructive story in the context of what are really big challenges for everyone.”

In the wake of the review, the Scotland’s Towns Partnership was set up to bring all the stakeholders together to work on solutions to the problem. One of these is the establishment of improvement districts run by local businesses and communities to tackle high street blight in various ways.

“A close look highlights that the spirit of reinvention is very much alive,’’ said chair of Scotland’s Towns Partnership Professor Leigh Sparks. “Some towns have been totally reinvented – Wigtown as the Book Town, West Kilbride as the Craft Town, Kirkcudbright as the Art Town, Oban for Seafood and Dunoon and Fort William as outdoor leisure specialists.”

THE Scottish Government has also established a £50m capital Town Centre Fund to enable local authorities to stimulate and support economic investments which encourage town centres to diversify and flourish, creating footfall through local improvements and partnerships.

“We think this will result in incredible change over the next year,” said Prentice.

Leading architect Malcolm Fraser, who chaired the original town centre review agrees the high street is not on its last legs. “It does not feel like doom and gloom to me as there are examples of good things happening,” he said.

“The sort of towns that the press will often say are dying on their feet are showing there are ways forward. Lots of communities are taking over unused buildings to launch nurseries or other services and other initiatives are setting up arts and crafts.

“Small amounts of public funding can unlock huge economic potential and there are places already doing a lot, such as the Stove Network in Dumfries.

“The world has changed and we need to stop obsessing about retail and appreciate other things.’’

In answer to the call to reduce retail rates, a Scottish Government spokesperson said: “The Scottish Budget maintained the most generous package of reliefs in the UK, worth over £750m and ensures over 90% of properties in Scotland, including all small and medium-sized businesses, will pay a lower poundage than they would in other parts of the UK.

“We are also supporting town centres face the challenge of changing and evolving retail patterns.”