One in 10 retailers closed their doors between January and September this year according to research released today by the Local Data Company.

From a survey of 251,462 firms across more than 705 centres in the UK, 25,090 had closed their doors.

The worst hit sector was the multi-brand sites, with some 21.6% of department stores, mail order and shopping centres closing in the nine months to September 30.

Fashion and footwear was one of the worst casualties of the recession with some 17.9% of stores in the womenswear and kidswear sectors and 12.4% of menswear stores shutting their doors in the first nine months of this year. Footwear also fared badly with 14.9% of stores closing.

Some of the most resilient sectors include chemists, toiletries and opticians, which had a 6.8% closure rate; and food retail, including grocers and supermarkets, which saw 8.3% of stores going out of business.

Liz Peace, chief executive of the British Property Federation, commented: “Clearly no one is escaping the recession and it’s vital that ministers offer real help to businesses through a sensible mitigation of the impact of next year’s rise in business rates and a cut in empty property rates. In order to maintain investment in retail regeneration, developers need to be able to maintain returns which are generated from keeping rents at a certain level.”

Topics