Retailers will today pay out hundreds of millions of pounds in rent, leading to fears that some may be taken under by the burden of this quarter’s upfront payments as trading continues to slow.

Ongoing negotiations between retailers and landlords over the reform of the centuries-old practice of quarterly rents in advance continue to drag on, although the move to monthly rents that some retailers have now agreed could come too late for the more marginal businesses.

The British Retail Consortium has described today’s quarterly payments as the 'toughest' faced by retailers in at least 18 years.

Financial Times, Daily Telegraph, The Independent