Is the UK High Street Dead?

A lot has changed over the last ten years – but one thing that hasn’t is a crisis on our high streets with boarded shop fronts and closed businesses already endemic before Covid. But what does that do to the psyche of a town? And has the expansion of higher education obscured the precipitous decline of retail and other industries? Aaron Bastani heads to Portsmouth and Bournemouth to better understand the collapse of Britain’s high streets.

• The Future of Work Focus is part of Novara Media’s Decade Project, an inquiry into the defining issues of the 2020s. The Decade Project is generously supported by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation (London Office).