Here’s how we can save Britain’s high streets | Letters

2026-02-02 - 16:35

Readers on regenerating town centres and making high streets attractive community spaces again High streets have been changing throughout my lifetime (I’m 82 and had a high-street business for more than 20 years) and they have somehow survived with precious little government help (Labour risks election wipeout unless it improves Britain’s high streets, study finds, 28 February). In my postwar rural Essex village, we had three butchers, two newsagents, two bakers, two ironmongers, three general stores (one a dairy) plus a potpourri of haberdashery, hair stylists, two sweet shops and an electrical shop that had every plug and wire known to man. There was consternation when the dairy went self-service, but soon everyone was shopping with a basket. Then came the grocery chains – the butchers and bakers disappeared, and the main haberdasher closed. But the village adjusted and other enterprises appeared. The next watershed was out-of-town shopping (driven by local government poverty and the temptation of a new village hall in exchange for planning permission for a superstore) that pulled that rug away. Continue reading...