Over Christmas, thousands of people must have had much the same experience: a trip to see friends or relatives somewhere familiar, and the realisation that a once-thriving town centre is dangerously close to the economic point of no return, and a future of eerie silence.
The massed emptying-out of places has been going on since the crash of 2008, but the latest chapter of the story is dramatic. In 2024, the UK lost about 37 shops a day: almost 13,500 retail stores closed for good – including branches of Lloyds Pharmacy, The Body Shop and Ted Baker – which was a rise of 28% on 2023. What we know so far about 2025 is of a piece: thousands of shops owned by major retail businesses closed their doors, and the list is full of equally familiar names – among them Fired Earth, New Look and the beauty chain Bodycare. Even some of the high street’s staples are on their way out, as evidenced by the closure of Poundland shops, and news that even charities are leaving: Cancer Research UK, for example, plans to close about 90 of its shops by May, with up to 100 more to go by April next year.
