As scores of retailers shut shops, what might future high streets and town centres look like?

If you thought January couldn’t get any worse for Britain’s struggling high streets you would be wrong. To cap off a month that has been so tough for so many businesses and employees, it emerged this week that a series of major deals are in play that will result in some of retail’s most famous brands disappearing from town centres forever.

Swoops in the last few days have included online fashion giant Boohoo buying the Debenhams brand and website, and also revealing it is in talks with administrators of Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia to snap up Burton, Dorothy Perkins and Wallis. Meanwhile rival Asos is in exclusive discussions for the other remaining Arcadia divisions still up for grabs, including Topshop and Miss Selfridge.

Read the full story in the Evening Standard.