Closures show high streets need help

The latest data from professional services firm PwC shows that Yorkshire’s high streets need as much help as they can get.

It paints a concerning picture of a trend away from high streets. The impact of online retail has already been felt by towns and cities across the region.

But to simply shrug and say that this is the way things are headed would be overlooking something more important than just shops disappearing from high streets.

Often the heart of the community is being ripped out. Places where friends and family would congregate at the weekend to catch up are now being replaced with ghost towns.

PwC’s data on store openings and closures shows that Yorkshire has seen a -2.6 per cent net change in the number of outlets in the region with almost four stores a day closing in 2023. While there were two stores opening each day.

The data showed that retail parks remained resilient since before the pandemic and are the only locations to have grown slightly in 2023.

This highlights that there is still an appetite for physical stores, even in an online world.

Accessibility to high streets needs to be improved if people are going to get back into the town and city centres.

Too often poor public transport is letting these businesses down. And parking is limited and when available costly. Little wonder that retail parks are still proving resilient while high streets are struggling. High streets also need to be reimagined with a greater emphasis on an experience that goes beyond just in store transactions.