Britain Risks Becoming a Ghost Town Nation as Small Firms Forced to Close

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 16th Dec 2003

Responding to a report published yesterday, which indicates that Britain has lost a third of its bank branch network over the last decade Mid Dorset MP Annette Brooke said:

"Far from being a 'nation of shopkeepers', Britain is fast becoming a country of ghost towns, with the rapid closure of independent shops and businesses on the local high street.

"Small businesses represent the very heart of our communities and provide essential services to local people, particularly the elderly or those without transport who cannot afford to visit out of town shopping centres for their daily needs.

"The Government must take urgent action to help struggling small firms with the burden of red tape and business rates in order to ensure their long term survival."

The publication 'Ghost Town Britain' by the New Economics Foundation, a think-tank, examines the factors influencing the closure of so many small shops and business in both rural and urban communities across Britain.

"Ghost Town" refers to the fact that in the past decade, the nation has lost nearly 30,000 independent retailers, including a 30% reduction in the number of independent food, drink and tobacco shops, amounting to about 50 closures of such specialist shops each week.

Twenty traditional pubs are closing every month and general stores are closing at a rate of one per day. Over 800 communities no longer have a bank, and over 1000 have just a single branch. With about 345 post offices closing each year, in spite of interventions and the endeavours of committed locals, some villages have no bank or post office left.

Sadly, as smaller towns and villages lose their butchers, bakers, newsagents, tobacconists, fishmongers, greengrocers and family-owned general merchandisers, they will be permanently replaced by carbon copy retailers, fast food outlets, fashion stores and supermarkets. Such a decline in the number of local shops means that many of the most vulnerable groups in society, the elderly, the infirm, young people and mothers with children, often are forced to travel further for their goods and services.

Local MP, Annette Brooke, has been campaigning to prevent the closure of local post offices and is opposing proposals to de-regulate the community pharmacy sector, which could seriously impact smaller, independent pharmacies and lead to their closure.