The UK’s high streets are in freefall, according to the UK’s SMEs, with 85% of the view that the high street is in decline, a survey of 900 businesses conducted on behalf of Close Brothers Asset Finance reveals.
Unusually, this view is shared across all areas measured, including region, sector and business size (turnover and employee numbers) with little variation between them.
“We’ve rarely seen this level of consensus in our research and it reflects the respondents’ personal experiences of the high street, whether as a consumer or a retailer,” said Neil Davies, CEO, Close Brothers Asset Finance.
“The issues facing the high street are many and multiple, with unreasonable business rates seen as the single biggest cause of the problems, followed by parking charges and – rather surprisingly in third and fourth place – online shopping and changing shopping habits.”