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In 2002, nef launched the groundbreaking report, Ghost Town Britain, which struck a chord with people across Britain with its picture of a nation rapidly losing the local shops and services that have been the economic backbone, and an essential part of the social "glue", of local rural and urban communities across Britain.
In place of real local shops has come a package of "identikit" chain stores replicating on the nation's high streets. The individual character of many towns is evaporating. Retail spaces once filled with independent butchers, newsagents, tobacconists, pubs, book shops, greengrocers and family owned general stores are filled with supermarket stores, fast food chains and global fashion outlets.
Many town centres that have been "regenerated" have even lost their traditional facades as local building materials are replaced by identical branded glass, steel and concrete storefronts.
The appearance of Clone Town Britain has been aided by planning and regeneration decisions that have created a retail infrastructure hostile to small, independent businesses. The homogenisation of high streets is also not a benign or inevitable product of ‘progress’:
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Loss of diversity ultimately leads to a loss of true choice for consumers as well as a loss of local character
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Replacement of locally owned outlets by retail multiples can damage the local economy as profits drain out of the area to remote corporate headquarters and local employment is destroyed
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The many people who now wish to return to local, high street shopping may find that their distinctive local shops have been replaced by “micro-format” supermarket or chain branches
nef is asking people across Britain to complete the brief Clone Town Britain survey on their own high streets, and send in photos of their least favourite, or favourite, parts of town. We have also opened a consultation and would like to hear from people involved in town planning and regeneration what can be done to recreate and preserve diverse, vibrant local economies in Britain.
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