Swindon named as fifth hardest hit highstreet in the UK

Swindon’s high street has been named as one of the fastest declining in the country - according to a recent survey, being rated as 5th worst out of 50 of the UK’s largest towns and cities.

In the list of worst hit highstreets in the UK, Swindon follows Poole, Blackpool, Warrington and Manchester. In comparison, the high streets that appear to have weathered the economic pressures the best, according to the methodology used, are Peterborough, Huddersfield and Coventry.

The analysis, conducted by AskTraders, logged store closures, cash machine removals, and bank closures from the 50 largest towns and cities in the UK.

Data was drawn from Link ATM, the Office for National Statistics and Which? Magazine.

The information was then compared with the percentage of openings and retail growth to create a list of the best and worst high streets in the UK.

The first half of 2019 was a bleak time for highstreets nationally, with a net decline of 1,234 chain stores across Britain’s high streets, according to data collected by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and the Local Data Company (LDC) - the highest number of closures recorded over the last five years.

20 'worst' Highstreets in the UK:

1. Poole

2. Blackpool

3. Warrington

4. Manchester

5. Swindon

6. Edinburgh

7. York

8. Stockport

9. Burnley

10. Sheffield

11. Bournemouth

12. Brighton

13. Aberdeen

14. Swansea

15. Oxford

16. Wigan

17. Derby

18. Norwich

19. Leeds

20. Glasgow

20 'best' highstreets in the UK

1. Peterborough

2. Huddersfield

3. Coventry

4. Hull

5. Slough

6. London

7. Northampton

8. Luton

9. Basildon

10. Milton Keynes

11. Telford

12. Gloucester

13. Southampton

14. Newcastle

15. Leicester

16. Doncaster

17. Bolton

18. Bexley

19. Liverpool

20. Nottingham

For details of how the list was calculated and details of other towns on the list, click here