Nearly 5,000 chain stores shut in year of retreat from high street

Almost 5,000 more chain stores were left empty last year - a rate of about 14 closures a day - as high streets were hurt by the failure of Wilko and the retreat of banks and pubs.

- Sarah Butler

Pharmacies were the biggest loser with 787 chain outlets disappearing although many of these were Lloyds outlets which were taken over by independents.

Next in line were pubs with a net 722 closing, as Wetherspoon's and Stonegate, the owner of the Slug and Lettuce brand, shut venues.

The figures from the Local Data Company (LDC) for the advisory firm Price water house Coopers (PwC) showed the rate of net closures was up by a third from 3,627, but far short of the post-pandemic peak of more than 10,000 in 2021.

The figures do not include the many thousands of independent outlets trading in the UK.

Retail parks saw a net increase in outlets while high streets fared the worst last year with a net 3.3% decline in the number of trading sites.