Jan. 6 (Bloomberg) -- U.K. retailers will close a record number of stores this year as higher costs and a continued spending slowdown force companies to dispose of outlets or collapse into administration, consulting firm Experian Plc said.

The U.K. store vacancy rate will rise to 10 percent by February from 7 percent now before soaring to a record 15 percent by the year’s end, Dublin-based Experian said today in an e-mailed statement. At that rate, 135,000 shops would be left empty. Stores in smaller towns will be most affected by closings, Experian said.

Widespread failures of retailers would have a “significant impact on high street returns” as well as hurting suppliers and service providers, Jonathan de Mello, Experian’s director of retail consultancy, said in the statement.

Woolworths Group Plc and MFI Retail Ltd. are among U.K. retailers that have closed outlets after going into administration as the country’s first recession in 17 years deepens. Consumer confidence fell to the lowest since at least 2004 in December, Nationwide Building Society said today, and unemployment rose at the fastest pace since 1991 in November.

To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew Cleary in London at acleary7@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: January 6, 2009 05:57 EST