Closure of high street services in rural areas

Summary

There has been a gradual evolution in the types of businesses located on UK high streets over the last fifty years.

The Centre for Retail Research has described the retail industry as having faced a “permacrisis” since the 2008/09 financial crisis, with trends in reduced footfall and increased levels of store closures never fully recovering from crisis. These trends were then exacerbated by the pandemic, as post pandemic, consumers have “got out of the habit of high-street shopping or even visiting a store.”

These trends are reflected in the number of high streets shop closures with data indicating high street locations have suffered greater than average levels of retail closures in recent years.

In addition to these changes to high street retail businesses, there has also been a change in the number of non-retail service businesses located on high streets, owing to shifts to online service provision.

This is particularly true of banks. Analysis by PwC has described the banking sector as “facing a structural decline in branch numbers” owing to the increased prevalence of online banking and the reduction in need for many customers to visit bank branches in person.

The move to online service provision has also affected other high street service business, such as estate agents, employment agencies, and betting shops.

There has also been a long-term decline in the number of post offices, with a steady decline in the 1980s and 1990s that increased from the mid-2000s – but that halted in around 2009.