Most councils are terrified by the belief that if they any way impede the motor car the high street will be doomed (and many of the businesses conspire in this belief). Which is a odd belief, as the only thing that will save them is, by definition, local shopping and activity. They surveyed traffic locally as part of the development plan and it wasn't much of a surprise that most of traffic went straight through, and if stopped it was by a convenience store, fast food franchise, or cash machine (causing parking problems in the process; actual shoppers who drove use the car parks). No huge surprise that at the same time, the high street became less of a place to go, and instead – like most high streets – it's a gradual fall into the thrall to lottery ticket purchases and fast food, while charity shop pop-ups fill the gaps.
That said, as part of a business idea, I did check some the rents and they were stupidly high, so that's evidently driving the vacancy rates and encouraging chains. Even some simple maths made it clear that you'd need a lot of business to be sustainable. It's no surprise that every independent business that wasn't already established tends to disappear after a few months. The independent coffee shop, for instance, disappeared overnight. It's a Costa now.
