High street shops are 'vanishing' - News - Evening Standard
       

High street shops are 'vanishing'

The local high street is slowly disappearing as it fights to compete with cheaper supermarkets and shopping centres, a report warns.

The British Shops and Stores Association said an increasing number of high street shops - such as fishmongers, florists and independent clothes outlets - are vanishing.

The association's report found that 42 per cent of shoppers believe their local high street has declined slowly over the last 10 years, particularly in quality.

More than 300 of its 4,500 members - small, independent shops - have had to close in the last 12 months.

Chief executive John Dean blamed the Government, big retailers and local planning regulators for the high street's decline.

He said: "We've got to do something about it before it's too late."

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