Allow the high street a dignified death

Trying to keep alive a dying industry is futile and expensive, says Matthew Lynn. Instead, let high-street shops die - and revive Britain's town centres another way.

The sun may be shining, and the state of the rest of the economy may be getting better, but the news from the high street just gets worse and worse.

On Monday, the computer games retailer Game went into administration, putting at risk the jobs of more than 5,000 staff at over 600 shops around the country. That follows a terrible Christmas and New Year, when a whole string of big retail names La Senza, Peacocks and Past Times all ran into trouble. The accountant Deloitte predicted last week that as many as 40% of British shops might be forced to close in the next five years.

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Matthew Lynn

Matthew Lynn is a columnist for Bloomberg, and writes weekly commentary syndicated in papers such as the Daily Telegraph, Die Welt, the Sydney Morning Herald, the South China Morning Post and the Miami Herald. He is also an associate editor of Spectator Business, and a regular contributor to The Spectator. Before that, he worked for the business section of the Sunday Times for ten years. 

He has written books on finance and financial topics, including Bust: Greece, The Euro and The Sovereign Debt Crisis and The Long Depression: The Slump of 2008 to 2031. Matthew is also the author of the Death Force series of military thrillers and the founder of Lume Books, an independent publisher.