Trouble on the High Street
There are few more depressing sites at the moment tan walking down many of Britain’s High Streets with many having a plethora of closed or closing down shops.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) reports that 1 in 10 high street shops is now unoccupied and higher in many places as there is considerable variance and much depends on how close a retail shopping centre is to the High Street.
Part of the difficulty with these small retailers is that there becomes a domino effect, the more shops that close, the more people don’t use their high Street. This is exacerbated by the ongoiung growth in online shopping.
Set against this background it is clear that local councils, who also suffer with decreased business rate revenues will need to help the smallest retailers. A spokesman for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said the Government is currently looking at a number of proposals to support high street shops.
