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England’s poorest communities have 70% more vape shops, off-licences and bookmakers than wealthier ones and far fewer cafes and gyms, a study has found.
The Independent Commission on Neighbourhoods (Icon), chaired by the Labour peer Hilary Armstrong, said ministers risked overlooking vitally important neighbourhood shopping precincts by focusing on town centres. In deprived areas, local shops have roughly double the number of retailers selling unhealthy food and significantly higher vacancy rates, its research has found.
Tackling Britain’s struggling high streets is one of the main missions of Keir Starmer’s government. In a speech last week – overshadowed by the Peter Mandelson scandal – the prime minister announced an expansion of the £5bn “pride in place” programme of investing in 284 areas across the UK.
The funds will allow communities to seize boarded-up shops and buy beloved local assets such as libraries and cinemas.
Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, which has a 10-point lead in the polls, is focusing on “broken” high streets ahead of a potentially devastating set of local elections for Labour in May.
The Icon study, due to be published on Monday, warns that the focus on town centres risks overlooking “crucial” local shopping parades – defined as “the shops down the road” – which play a central role in people’s lives. In deprived areas, these shopping parades have 70% more vape shops, bookmakers, off-licences and takeaways than in prosperous areas, according to the research.
They also have half the number of childcare facilities – such as nurseries and children’s centres – and about 25% less social infrastructure such as gyms, cafes and pubs. Vacancy rates in the poorest neighbourhoods are also higher: 8.1% compared with 5.9% in more affluent areas.
Researchers criticised a “fragmented” and disjointed approach to these “hyperlocal” areas, suggesting that as many as 13 government departments were responsible for policy – rising to 16 with healthy eating initiatives.
It was unclear if Starmer’s “pride in place” policy would address those concerns, they said. “Ministers risk overlooking vital neighbourhood shopping parades as the government focuses on boosting town centre retail,” said Ross Mudie, Icon’s head of research. “Communities in these areas should be given extra support to take over and run empty units in their local shopping parades as new community facilities.”
Recent polls have showed the decline of the high street as one of the biggest concerns people have about their local area, after high prices in shops. The areas with the sorriest-looking high streets are mostly in Labour’s traditional heartlands, many in the Midlands and north-east of England.
The thinktank IPPR North has warned that the “withering away” of local community spaces has helped fuel the shift of people online, with young men in particular drawn into radical rightwing politics through WhatsApp and Telegram.
Zoë Billingham, the director of IPPR North, said on Sunday: “People rightly assess the state of the country by their surroundings. When we see local shops fall into disrepair or sit empty, it’s a sign of economic failure. Neighbourhood precincts are often people’s go to spaces, especially in places underserved by local transport, so it’s right they are taken as seriously as high streets. We need physical spaces to come together, to regain a lost sense of community.”
Prof Will Jennings, of the University of Southampton, warned last week that Labour would be “washed away in a tide of discontent” at the next general election unless it tackles the decline of Britain’s high streets.
Research by Jennings found that people felt high streets had declined more than any other part of their local area over the past decade as household brands collapsed and shoplifting rose. His study builds on two previous YouGov surveys and shows a collapse in local pride between the end of Boris Johnson’s time as prime minister in September 2022 and the end of Rishi Sunak’s premiership in July 2024, driven by concerns about healthcare, shops, crime and opportunities for young people.
There was a partial rebound last year under Labour, but the state of the country’s high streets remained by far the problem people felt had worsened most over the past decade.
