More shops will collapse into administration or announce store closures in the next couple of weeks, after suffering from profits which can only be described as being squeezed to extinction. Add to this a general fall in sales over Christmas, all of which can only add to the problems which are facing our High Street retailers.

Last week saw some more famous names go to the wall including Barratts Priceless, the shoe chain, Hawkin’s Bazaar, the toy shop and D2 Jeans. I have been reading comments made by Stephen Robertson, the director general of the British Retail Consortium, who has said that they expect another clutch of names to go to the wall in the coming weeks and months. According to Robertson, he has said conditions were worse than at the end of 2008, a period acknowledged to be the worst in a generation for the high street and which saw the collapse of Woolworths, Zavvi and MFI.

So I have to ask where the High Street is going, because without it our towns and cities will not be the same. The internet revolution has of course had an effect on the way that we shop, but top retailers have learned not just to live with it but to embrace it. Tesco have a very good home delivery service and on the London underground it is possible to visit a “virtual supermarket” as you commute back to home. John Lewis is yet another example of a top class store that has an excellent online facility but they offer so much more as well.  However the biggest complaint that retailers, particularly smaller ones have is the business rate which increases year on year, they are going up by another record 5.6% next year. As far as I can see the rates in England are the highest in the world.