While local shops in countries such as France are protected, the UK is crippled by lax planning laws and sky-high business rates
High streets matter. We don’t want them to follow churches, becoming relics of a mostly dying sense of community. They should be the living hubs of villages and towns and not vanish beneath an anonymous swathe of suburban housing.
The news is that 6,000 high-street shops have closed in the past five years. The big stores are already going. Wilko has followed Debenhams and Arcadia into collapse. One in seven high-street premises now lie vacant, while vape stores, nail bars and charity shops invade the rest. Dame Sharon White, the boss of John Lewis Partnership, which has already closed 16 of its own outlets, pleaded this week for a royal commission to rescue what is left. Something must be done, she said, “to stop the hearts being ripped out of our communities”.
