House of Fraser, the ailing UK department store group, is in talks with Britain's pensions regulator over the company's $900 million dollar pension liability. This comes after the Chinese owned retailer announced a major restructuring, involving possibly store closures. Concerns over the future of the 165 year-old department store reflect wider malaise in Britain's retail industry, as Richard Bestic reports from London.

The chill winds of change are blowing through the UK's city centre shopping areas. It's a disruption brought on by the battle of clicks against bricks – the Internet moving spending Online and away from traditional shops.

RICHARD BESTIC LONDON Some of the biggest names in the retail industry have gone to the wall, like Toy R Us here, victims of the Internet and the change spending habits at a cost of thousands of jobs. The challenges are immense, as nearly half of retails sales could go Online within five years according to retail experts.

DARREN YAGES CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD "I think the shop still has a future. Although I think the function of the store is very much changing. I think we'll see fewer tills, fewer staff. I think stores will become very much more of a showroom function in the future and I think that whilst on the one hand, technology is seen as the enemy of physical retail, in fact it can be a real boost."

That boost however doesn't come cost free for many in the retail industry.

RICHARD BESTIC LONDON "It's the big department stores, like the struggling House of Fraser, which are taking the biggest hits in the ongoing battle between clicks and bricks. In the retail revolution it would seem, they've simply got too much floor space."

House of Fraser group, 89 percent owned by China's Nanjing Cenbest, has added its name to a growing list of Internet casualties, confirming plans to close stores as part of a difficult restructuring that puts hundreds of jobs at risk. It's signed a conditional sale of 51 percent to the owner's of the famous Hamley's toy shop, C. Banner International Holdings.

RICHARD BESTIC LONDON It is of course a revolution and it's quite possible that in a few years city centre shopping areas could be nicer places to go. The intervening years however, will be costly in terms of change and in lost jobs."

DARREN YAGES CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD "Yes, we know there'll be casualties. We think that the physical retail space will be trimmed, but at the end of the day, we see this process very much as part of a renewal of the urban landscape and that's nothing to be feared. In fact, we should probably embrace it."

That optimism is largely based on jobs being transferred to back room operations in warehouses, working for those companies that sowed the seeds of change in the first place. Rb, CGTN, London.