The new agreement will see British Land cut charges by 20 per cent at Meadowhall by next year, saving retailers over £2m a year, while Land Securities will reduce charges by 13 per cent at the White Rose centre in Leeds.

Reductions of up to 20 per cent will also be made at Cribbs Causeway in Bristol and Merry Hill in Dudley.

Security, cleaning and customer services will be made more efficient at the centres and, if the plan is successful, it could be rolled out to other locations. It is thought a glut of redundancies was necessary to achieve the cuts, and it is believed British Land was forced to make more than 50 staff redundant at Meadowhall.

The move follows the formation of the Landlords and Retailers Working Group, which is headed by Sir Philip Green and Land Securities’ boss Francis Salway and was set up for stakeholders to help each other cope with the spiralling economic downturn.

Speaking on behalf of the working group, British Land director Andrew Jones said it was “mutually beneficial” for landlords and retailers to keep service charges low.

“While there is no “one size fits all” solution to reducing shopping centre service charges, by mutually identifying changes to service requirements and realigning resources to those that add value, we will achieve these savings without impairment to customer service levels,” he concludes.

The British Property Federation’s chief executive, Liz Peace, echoed these sentiments. “Discussions must happen between landlords and tenants on a case by case basis. No-one wants to see retailers go out of business, but landlords are businesses too and they are also being badly affected by the downturn. Our position has always been that the two sides must talk and this is a great example of how it can work in practice.”

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