Ghost Town Britain

We used to be a nation of shop-keepers.We have become a nation of shop-busters. Local shops and services – including corners shops, grocers, high-street banks, post offices, pubs, hardware stores – are
fast disappearing. The change is happening most visibly in villages and market towns, but just as dramatically in many larger urban and suburban areas.

Between 1995-2000, we lost roughly one-fifth of these vital institutions – the very fabric of our local economies. If current trends continue, we will lose a third of the tattered remains of that fabric over
the next ten years. The result is Ghost Town Britain – an increasing number of communities and neighbourhoods that lack easy access to local banks, post offices, corner shops and pubs that provide the social glue that holds communities together.