14 chain shops 'close every day'

Yui Mok/PA Archive/Press Association Images

An average of 14 town centre shops a day were shut by store chains last year as shoppers increasingly desert high streets for online and out-of-town retailers, new figures show.

Multiple retailers with six or more shops failed to open as many stores as they closed last year for the first time since 2008, according to a study of the 500 biggest town centres in the UK by PwC and Local Data Company.