MULTIPLE retailers closed 210 shops in Yorkshire and Humber in the first half of 2012, according to a report by PriceWaterhouseCoopers and the local Data Company.

National brands opened 168 new shops, resulting in an overall reduction of 42 shops.

Great Britain’s multiple retailers closed 20 stores a day on average across the country’s top 500 town centres in the first half of 2012.

The results contrast to net increase in multiple retailers of 1.2 per cent in 2009 nationally, this year showing 1.14 per cent decline.

This is a net reduction of 953 shops nationally in the first half of 2012 compared with 174 shops in the whole of 2011, the report said.

Computer games, toy shops, clothes shops, gift shops, jewellers, card and poster shops and furniture stores were the hardest hit, while cheque cashing shops, pawnbrokers, discount stores, convenience stores, coffee shops, bookmakers, bureaux de change and charity shops opened.