Retail expert Professor Len Shackleton: 'The environment is often more pleasant at out of town shopping centres'

The report, commissioned two years ago by the last Tory government, says many shops serving rural communities are closing because up to half their trade is being taken by large stores on the outskirts of towns.

The Minister for the Regions, Regeneration and Planning, Richard Caborn, said local authorities should take note of the new study and ensure they used planning policies to protect town centres.

"This research firmly establishes that out-of-town superstores can seriously damage the health of small towns and district centres.

Tanya Beckett reports from old market town Wellington in Shropshire

"Arguments about clawing back trade and creating jobs simply don't hold water.

"The report provides yet further justification for the government's policy of concentrating appropriately-sized new supermarkets in existing centres and resisting out-of-centre development."

Policy change

Many small shops have struggled to survive

The BBC's Consumer Affairs Correspondent Nicola Carslaw says the report's findings are among the first hard proof that the explosion of large shopping centres in recent years has had a negative impact on nearby towns.

During the 1980s Conservative ministers denied there was anything other than anecdotal evidence that such a problem existed.

Nicola Carslaw: Proof of the harm done by out-of-town stores

However, two years ago they issued new planning guidance for proposed new stores.

Local authorities were told to favour new developments in town centres instead of ones to be built on sites a car ride away.

Supermarkets think small

Several supermarket chains have already responded to the backlash against large out-of-town stores by opening smaller branches in town centres.

Sainsbury's also announced last month that it would allow small independent village shops all over the country to stock its own brands of goods.

It said it hoped the initiative would help to breathe back new life into villages where shops were once a focal point for the community.

Six village stores will initially take part in a six-month pilot and will use their nearest Sainsbury's store as a wholesaler.