Shopping centre values in Britain have broken the records set at the end of the late 1980s property boom, it was claimed this week.

Chartered surveyors and commercial property agents Donaldsons estimate the total value of Britain's centres is now more than £21 billion.

Shopping centre rentals grew fastest last year in Greater London with a 10.3 per cent increase - the next-fastest growth, 8.1 per cent, was in East Anglia, the East Midlands and the North West.

Donaldsons also found that, as far as rental prospects were concerned, there was no evidence of an association between weak high streets and strong centres.

Shop rental growth in towns with strong shopping centres had, on average, been as good as in those with weak centres.