Shops ‘obsolete’

ONE of Britain’s biggest landlords has labelled a quarter of all shopping space as “technically obsolete”.

His comments come as ailing high streets struggle to cope with the onslaught of online retail.

Chris Grigg, the chief executive of British Land, which owns half of the Meadowhall Centre in Sheffield and freeholds for Debenhams, B&Q and Homebase, predicts that crumbling shop parades will gradually be taken out of use.

“It doesn’t mean they won’t continue to be used to some extent for some years to come, but they are likely to be become more marginal. What will do well are the modern shopping centres and retail parks.”

Mr Grigg, for whom retail and leisure makes up more than half of his $20.4 billion property portfolio, added: “These developments are going to have to shrink down so they have got a much clearer purpose through a combination of effective stores, more residential, more mixed use. But it is a very painful process.”