Queen of shops Mary Portas today reveals a raft of measures to rescue our high streets.

It comes seven months after the retail guru's first of two visits to Margate, which has a high number of empty shops.

During her tours she hinted that replacing those shops with homes and businesses could be one way of reviving the seaside town.

Now she has released her report, saying Britain's high streets are reaching crisis point, and calling for more street stalls, fewer parking charges and a cutting of red tape.

She said the current state of our high streets was down to decades of neglect and mismanagement.

Among her proposals was a call for a national market day.

During her second visit in September, she said: "I think many towns nowadays are over-retailed, so you have to look at different options. If part of the solution is residential, then that's a very clever option."

At the time, Cllr Bob Bayford, ex-leader of Thanet council, which has spent thousands of pounds on improvements to the town centre, agreed more of the high street could be given over to residential use.

He said: "Mary's given us an insight into what we could do with the high street. We may turn some of the retail spaces into residential or business spaces - but they wouldn't be used for retail.

"What we need to look now at is whether any parts currently designated for retail could be put to residential use."

Ms Portas's visit - part of an independent review into the future of the high street - came just weeks after the town was named as among Britain's worst ghost towns.