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The decline in neighbourhood shops and services is sounding the death knell for Britain's local economies.
- Between 1995 and 2000, the UK lost 20 per cent of some of its most vital institutions: corner shops, grocers, high street banks, post offices and pubs, amounting to a cumulative loss of over 30,000 local economic outlets.
- A further 28,000 outlets stand to be lost by 2005.
- Overall, on current trends, the number of local outlets will have dropped by nearly a third in the two decades to 2010.
The result is Ghost Town Britain: communities and neighbourhoods in core urban as well as rural areas without easy access to such essential elements of both the economy and the social fabric of the country.
nef is leading the local works campaign, in support of the Local Communities Sustainability Bill, to halt the emergence of Ghost Town Britain by putting power back in the hands of local people, to make their own plans for how they want to develop and sustain their communities.
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